I'm a HUGE Fan of Life......

       Buddhist beliefs hold that life is a precious opportunity that is SO rare that the chances of manifesting in a human body are so infinitesimal , that it is almost incomprehensible with the human mind. A quote of the Buddha maintains that "imagine single ancient sea turtle swimming alone in all of the oceans of the world. Once every 250 years it comes to the surface to take a breath of air. Imagine that it surfaces inside the center of a circle that is 10 feet in circumference. The only such circle that exists on all of the oceans in all of the world. These are the odds of manifesting in a human body".
    Given that these odds are so great, and life is considered so precious, abortion must automatically be assumed as taboo in Buddhist tradition right? If you are a part of the Eastern brand of the teaching, absolutely. In 1995 the Dalai Lama wrote a book titled The Power of Compassion in which he condemned injustice, racial and ethnic hatred, inequality, and abortion. The Dalai Lama is quoted to have "denounced abortion as a sin against 'non-violence to all sentient beings.'" However, move west a few thousand miles, and engross yourself in a political left that consistently hi-jacks eastern philosophy to reach its own devious ends, and here you see the pro-choice Buddhist. This perverted western stance flies in the face of all that is considered noble. The 8-fold noble path of Buddhism is as follows:
1) Right Understanding
2) Right Thought
3) Right Speech
4) Right Action
5) Right Livelihood
6) Right Effort
7) Right Mindfulness
8) Right Concentration
      If abortion is in-fact violence against a sentient being, wouldn't the 1st, 2nd, and 4th precepts of the 8-fold path naturally lead you to not only understand and think of it as wrong, but take "action" to oppose it? If you follow the true teachings of the Buddha, the Lama, and the Karmapa, you HAVE to in order to correctly follow the path. The reason why you have to is because of the 6th precept, right effort....you have to make a personal physical effort to manifest the precepts in the natural realm. In other words, you have to try to make the non-killing of babies a part of the real world around you and not just a theory.
      My understanding is that life doesn’t "begin." Scientists tell us that life got to this planet, somehow, about 4 billion years ago, and since then life has expressed itself in diverse forms beyond counting. But no one has observed it "beginning." We living beings are manifestations of an unbroken process that has been going on for 4 billion years, give or take. To me, "When does life begin?" is a nonsensical question. I am a huge fan of life, so the idea that the question is even an argument in the ability to destroy the unborn is ridiculous.
      Follow this line of thinking, and you have the natural conclusion that since abortion is killing a living being- DON'T DO IT. That would be the objectivist outcome if these aforementioned facts are followed to their conclusion. My Libertarian-stance would be to fight this on the local level and NOT on the national, or federal level.....