Before I begin, let me make something clear: I am absolutely and unequivocally pro-life. I am not a pro-choice advocate on a covert reconnaissance mission attempting to dismantle the pro-life platform. I believe that an abortion is a procedure that kills an innocent human life, and not simply the removal of a useless mass of cells. And above all else, I will always advocate for a woman to choose life rather than an abortion.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's address my title: it seems kind of oxymoronic, doesn't it? It does until we get to the final point that I opened with, "I will always advocate for a woman to choose life." Did you catch it? Choose life.

I won't delve too deep into my personal backstory, but prior to enrolling in college I was literally the polar opposite of the person that I am today. I was a liberal, pro-choice, atheist and registered Democrat. Today, I am a conservative, pro-life, Christian and registered Republican. The first major change in my life was accepting Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. The second major change in my life, as every other born-again Christian can relate to, was reevaluating my worldview. Now, although I justify all of my political beliefs through the lens of my faith, I also aim to justify them through the lens of secularism.

I said all of that to say that after a thorough internal evaluation of what I believe to be right, one aspect that dramatically changed was shifting from pro-choice to pro-life. As a biology major, I obviously hold scientific truths in an extremely high regard. One scientific truth that I simply cannot ignore is the fact that human life begins the moment that a sperm cell fertilizes an oocyte, creating a zygote, which then induces the development of a human embryo. Here is a reference list, compiled by Princeton University, of scientific articles that posit that same view.

That scientific truth, coupled with my faith telling me that every human life is preformed and predestinated before they were implanted in their mother's womb (Jeremiah 1:4-5), caused me to begin identifying as pro-life.

Okay, so now that y'all know a little bit about my perspective and where I'm coming from, I feel I can adequately explain what I mean when I say that being pro-life means I'm pro-choice.

First of all, I do think that there should be legal restrictions on how far along in a pregnancy an abortion can be administered. As of right now, 22 weeks seems like a fair cutoff, as we now know that premature babies can survive outside of the womb at this point of gestation. Unlike many of my pro-life counterparts, however, I do not support the overturning of Roe v. Wade or the outright outlawing of abortion.

One reason for that is simply because if a woman truly desires to receive an abortion, then she should be able to receive one safely and in a professional medical clinic. I, for one, do not want to revert back to the days prior to the Supreme Court's decision, where, as indicated by Ron Grossman at the Chicago Tribune ". . . terminating pregnancies was a monopoly of back-alley abortionists."

The other reason is a little more complicated: I want to effectively change the culture in such a profound way that even with the availability of receiving an abortion, women will willingly choose life. I know that sounds ambitious, and to some extent, impossible. But with education, engagement and activism that pipe dream has a chance at becoming reality.

One thing that I know for certain is that if we take away a woman's ability to make that choice, then we are only hurting ourselves. Forcing a person to do something doesn't help convince them that it is the right thing to do, in fact it takes away the ability to ascertain whether it is even right at all. If our goal as pro-life advocates is for women to choose life, then we have to realize that the most important aspect in achieving that goal is convincing them that choosing life is a better choice than choosing to receive an abortion.

In light of that, then, a complete ban on abortions is of no concern to me as a pro-life individual. In fact, I would much rather be able to encourage a woman to choose life over an abortion than make choosing life her only option. Which is why I don't think it's oxymoronic to say that being pro-life means I'm pro-choice, I actually think it's rewarding.