I recently was asked about my stance on abortion.

I believe that a woman has a right over her body, but I also believe that a baby's life begins at conception, and that child has a right to live. Obviously, in the world I live in today, those are conflicting ideas.

How then, you may ask, do I decide who to vote for?

Let me explain my answer.

The way I see it, we, as a people, have a human respect issue.

What I mean by that is, we pick and choose who we believe is worthy of life and equality.

We know about the starving children in Africa and the terrible conditions they live and die in there, but do we do anything? Do we sell our mansions to help fund emergency relief for them? No. We stick those images off to the side,don't think about it, and move on with our lives.

We know about the women and children in countless cultures who are treated horribly and bought and sold like furniture, but do we do anything? Do we send in our troops to rescue them and bring them to the United States to keep them safe? No. We have decided that they are not welcome here, we have decided that our table is full. So once again, we choose not to think about it.

So how can we acknowledge the life of a child in utero, a person who doesn't yet look like a person, a person whose eyes we can't look into, a person whose voice we can't hear...how can we expect people to acknowledge their life when we pick and choose who is deserving of life when we can hear their voices, see their eyes, and know that they are a living, breathing person?

Getting everyone in our country to agree that a child's life begins in utero is one of the last steps in a long tangled web of steps that must be completed.

Step 1 is acknowledging the problem we have. Ask yourself the following questions:

Do I believe I am better/more deserving than anyone?
Does everyone deserve the same quality of life I deserve, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, etc.?
Does everyone deserve the same quality of life I deserve regardless of what country they live in currently?

Step 2 is changing ourselves. Before you can expect anyone to change their views, you have to change your own. If you didn't answer a resounding "YES" to each question above, you have work to do. You must work on yourself before you can move to step 3 which is...

Step 3 is enlightening the people in your life. Your family, your friends, your colleagues, your neighbors... the people who don't think exactly like you but live in the same kind of world you do. Change as many people as you can in your life and encourage them to do the same.

Step 4 is the hardest step of all. Enlightening people you don't know personally, to get them to understand the respect of human life problem we have. These people will be resistant. These people will get angry. These people will yell and scream and fight and curse you, but you have to keep at it.

Step 5 is encouraging them to do the same.

There are so many steps between where we are today and where we need to be. But the first step starts with you.

Unfortunately, our country is more divided now than it has been in a long time. Friends and family members who were once incredibly close are now sworn enemies, mothers and fathers aren't speaking to their children who have different views, religious people are spewing hate and intolerance. We are moving in the wrong direction.

Start on step 1 today. No one can start it for you. And there will be resistance, and some people absolutely will NOT change - but what can we do besides try?

Spread love, not hate. Spread love in everything you do. It's not easy, but it's the only way.

What the world needs now is love.