In the wake of the recent anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, abortion has once again become a hot topic in Omaha and across the United States.

Abortion is one of those topics everyone has an opinion on, yet it leaves people just as hesitant as they are passionate to discuss it.

Such timidity is not unwarranted. Abortion is a dangerous topic, even going so far as to lead to the murder of one Kansas late-term abortion doctor not even a year ago.

Abortion is, needless to say, a complicated issue. Admittedly, my gender may give me a slanted view, and there may well be situations I will never understand. But when lives hang in the balance, all aspects must be scrutinized.

Planned Parenthood pulls in roughly one-third of its $1 billion revenue from taxpayers, begging the question, could these funds could not be spent more wisely? Prevention? Education? Adoptions?

Even the government has stepped in to provide viable alternatives to abortion, allowing parents to leave their children in state care, no questions asked, after the birth.

But too many people don’t entertain these alternatives. Too many look at abortion as a form of birth control. And it’s not just the financially stricken or incredibly young who are seeking this glorified birth control.

A survey of New England married couples revealed a shocking 11 percent would abort a child if they thought he or she would be obese.

Six percent, in the same survey, reported they would abort if the child would develop Alzheimer’s, a disease whose symptoms don’t normally occur until well into the victim’s 60s. One percent would do so on the basis of gender.

How cheaply is a life bartered for? The right to choose? Contraception is a choice. Adoption is a choice. Responsibility is a choice.

Another survey taken during a spike in abortions in the United States sought to find the motives behind these abortions.

Forty-nine percent of those having abortions were doing so because of self-described immaturity, lack of responsibility or because they were scared. Take this statistic through 1973, and that means almost 26 million lives have been stolen because pregnancy is scary.

Growing up is scary. Responsibility is scary. Just to compare, an underwhelming .6 percent of abortions in a separate survey were because of rape.

Yes, responsibility is scary. But we, as a society, must be ready to accept that responsibility. We must be strong and shoulder the burden of morality.

These choices will not be easy or simple, but we must have our priorities in order. If we don’t, we cease being masters of our own destiny.