There is no topic more controversial than abortion.

The word brings fire to people's eyes and makes them foam at the mouth. Whether you're pro-choice or pro-life, you know you're right. Depending on your view, abortion is either vital to women's rights or a sign of our society's depravity.

I am pro-choice. I believe that my body is my body. "Pro-choice" does not just encompass pregnancy-related issues, but decisions I make about my body all the time. I have a choice to eat too much, have sex, get my nose pierced or get plastic surgery. I am my own executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

But, I understand the opposing point of view. While I consistently defend the reproductive rights of both other women and myself, choosing to get an abortion would be the toughest, most heart-wrenching decision I could ever make. I'm thrilled I've never been
faced with such a dilemma -- of course, I've also made the choice to be careful.

To me, an abortion would not be the murder of a human being but the elimination of possibility. I would be ending the prospect of a child, not a child.

Until recently, I had problems articulating the most basic difference between the pro-choice and pro-life movements. I could never express why I felt that abortion wasn't wrong. Then, thanks to Penn State's general education requirements, I was forced to take CAS 100 (Speech Communication). I learned a lot in that class, like how to speak in front of a crowd without passing out.

Another important concept I absorbed in that class was about abortion. My professor, Rosa Eberly, said something that still comes to my mind whenever somebody mentions abortion: "We will never come to agreement on the subject of abortion as a society because we will never agree on when life begins."

It was a remark she made early and often that semester, and something she also mentioned in her textbook, The Elements of Reasoning. I can understand why she said it so often. The statement makes perfect sense to me -- and depresses me.

At the heart of the abortion debate is when life begins. Those in the pro-choice camp say that life begins at birth, while the pro-life activists are convinced that life begins at conception. And your position in the debate depends almost entirely on your religious convictions.

If your church or spiritual group teaches that consciousness begins when the egg and sperm combine, then you are likely to believe that abortion is wrong. If your faith (or lack thereof) states that consciousness begins when a child takes its first breath outside the mother's body, then you are likely to believe that abortion is a woman's choice.

And most unfortunately, we live in a nation that does not mandate religious beliefs. We have a little thing called "freedom of religion," which has let us become a nation with not only significant numbers of Protestants, Catholics, Jews and Muslims, but also pagans, Sikhs, Buddhists, Druids, Deists and people who adhere to dozens upon dozens of other lesser-known belief structures. Each of the hundreds of religions, cults, denominations and sects in America has beliefs about life that differ either slightly or significantly from one another, making any kind of consensus about what a god is -- let alone when life begins -- impossible.

Even science is divided about when life begins.

Scott Gilbert, a biology professor at Swarthmore College, lists seven possible ways to scientifically define when life begins, from the "metabolic view" (which says that life exists before conception, since the egg and sperm cells are both alive) to the "integrated physiological view" (which says that life begins when one is completely independent of the mother's body).

In-between views say that life begins at conception, at day 12 of gestation, at 25 weeks, at 27 weeks and at birth.

Therefore, we can all make arguments for or against abortion rights through both religious and scientific arguments. If the scientific community cannot even agree on when life begins, how can the divided people of the United States?

Furthermore, even if we could agree when life begins, there are the sticky questions about what life actually is. For instance, a woman recently wrote to The New York Times, stating she found out late into her pregnancy that the fetus she was carrying did not have any kidneys. It would surely die within two days of its birth. Does 36 hours of independence from the mother's body constitute life when the child is destined to die? The answer to that depends on your religious and philosophical opinions and beliefs.

Abortion is probably the only political issue today that is completely two-sided. There is no gray area for most people; no one is ambivalent to the topic.

Unfortunately, the subject will continue to divide us as a nation. We will never know the truth.