One Reason I Won't Vote Obama

Ah, the election draws nearer and I still wrestle who I will cast my vote for. I know one thing I am sure of though. I won't vote for Obama. (I'm wrestling between McCain and an independent.) I know that there are many factors that go into voting - many issues that need to be looked at and evaluated. From foreign policy to economics to education and so on. Then there is the abortion issue. This is more a moral issue and I think some people find it silly to cast a vote based on something they find to be not a major issue. It's a major isse to me, though.
I have been very pro-life since I was young enough to learn what abortion was. In high school, I wrote papers on it and presented them in class. You would probably never find me picketing outside an abortion clinic - that's not really my style of handling any issue.
I wonder how many women who are pro-choice have actually had an abortion. It seems that women whom I have heard speak that have had abortions carry scars and emotional guilt years later. I remember being at a conference called Hearts at Home a couple years ago and listening to a speaker named Lysa TerKeurst. She had all of us women thankful that there were tiny packages of Kleenex in our conference bags. She told her story that involved abortion.
About a month ago at a retreat for a program called STATS that I am a team leader for at Reeths-Puffer high school (groups of high schoolers go into local middle schools to talk about abstinence from drugs, tobacco, alcohol and sex until marriage) we listened to one of the team leaders share her story that involved drugs, alcohol, and an affair with a married man that landed her pregnant. She had that baby and went through college as a single mom. She married and had another son. Her husband was abusive to both her and her kids and the week that she finally found the courage to leave him, she found out she was pregnant. Not wanting to be a single, pregnant woman with other children or stay in an abusive marriage and have another baby, she ended up having an abortion. I watched as she stood up in front of us and cried while explaining that twenty years later - even though she knows God has forgiven her - she can't forgive herself for her abortion because she knows in her heart it was murder.
I have heard countless stories of women intent on abortions who go into a pregnancy center and end up receiving an ultrasound. Almost 90% of women who see this ultrasound end up changing their mind and either keep the baby themselves or give the child up for adoption.
I believe that life begins at conception. I saw Eleanor's tiny heart beating at 7 weeks. Though she looked like no more than a peanut, there was a constant flutter in her chest. I think any time a heart stops beating, it's a sign of death. I am pretty sure an abortion causes a heart to stop beating and because it was deliberately performed, I consider it murder.
I think that we need to be a nation that advocates adoption. I mean, for those of us who are going to stand against abortion, we have to have more than just that. We can't just encourage a woman to have a baby and then leave her. She might not be able to raise a child, whether because of single, or finances, or being in a relationship she herself does not want to be a part of. She has to know, though, that she is not alone during that time and that there is adoption. That way, twenty years later when she thinks about her baby, she can know that he or she was given a chance at life instead of regretting her decision and living with guilt.