I'm not against abortion, and I don't think that it's murder, because murder refers to intentionally killing a living human being. For the record, I had an abortion when I was in year 10. I did everything right, but the fact of the matter is, if you have sex, you're always at risk of pregnancy. However I was not a stupid teenager who didn't care, I was on the pill and used condoms at the time so I was just one of the unlucky statistical minorities. My personal emotional perspective on it, is that while of course I'd prefer to have never had to have made that decision, I did the right thing. I did not murder a child. I got the procedure done at 6-7 weeks. At that time there was no possible way that the fetus would have been able to survive on its own; it was totally dependant on me.
I'm a very strong advocate of the right to choice, and I honestly don't think it's anyone's business but the woman's (and of course her partner). However I do believe very strongly that abortions past the point where the child could theoretically and plausibly survive outside the womb should not be allowed, although of course there are exceptions to this, namely if carrying the child to term causes any harm to the mother.
I don't want to start a debate on this, however it is a topic which I feel very strongly about. Our government should try and keep their policies as secular as possible, as despite the personal beliefs of those in power, we are a multi-cultural society and it is unfair to expect the entire federal/state population to conform to one religious belief, ESPECIALLY when it comes to issues of healthcare.
So yeah. I got an abortion, I knew exactly what I was doing, I did the right thing and I don't regret it. Not every woman who goes through with it feels this way, which is why I think there should be an extremely strong emphasis on counselling both before and after. This is potentially expensive if privatised, and I believe that by removing medicare/healthcare funding for abortion the incidences of teenage motherhood in low income areas will just keep increasing.