There may be no more complex issue facing Americans than abortion.

Since 1973, Roe v. Wade has been the "litmus test" every politician has had to face. While Rudy Giuliani is trying to buck the trend, it is generally assumed that no Republican will be elected unless he is "pro-life" (anti-abortion) and no Democrat will be elected unless he or she is "pro-choice" (pro-abortion).

We have other life-and-death moral issues — specifically, capital punishment and euthanasia. However, even these do not generate the same passion and polarization as abortion.

Underneath the capital punishment debate is the fact that those put to death were found guilty of a heinous crime. There are also relatively few (hundreds per year), and they do not affect most of us personally.

With euthanasia, an individual is making a decision for himself or herself, and it's impossible not to sympathize with someone at the end of life and in terrible and constant pain.

In short, even the opponents of capital punishment and euthanasia have to acknowledge the powerful arguments for pro positions — the remorseless killers who deserve the greatest punishment a just society can deliver; the tortured terminal cases desperate to control what little earthly destiny they have left.

However, with abortion, the fetus has no part in the decision-making process and is unquestionably innocent of any wrongdoing. It is an intensely personal decision and, with close to 40 million abortions having been performed since 1973, almost all of us have been directly touched in one way or another.

For those with a deep religious conviction, life begins at conception and, at that point, the life is sacred and to be treated exactly as any newborn should be treated. This means that stem cell research (from embryos) and any abortion (including instances of rape, incest and the health of the mother) are out of the question. It is clear-cut, simple and leaves no room for moral ambiguity.

For almost everyone else, it is not nearly as simple or clear-cut. When does life begin: Conception? Birth? When the fetus can live outside of the womb (a date that changes with medical progress)? First, second or third trimester? Is the answer achieved through medical, religious or legal processes? Does the answer matter?

There are those who believe that, alive or not, the fetus is the property of the birth mother, and until it's delivered, she has a "reproductive right" to do with it what she will.

Abortion seductively offers some "gray areas." There are two "compromise" schools of thought. The first is: "I personally don't believe in abortion, but I do not believe I have a right to impose my beliefs on others, so it should be legal." The second is: "I only believe in abortion in cases of rape, incest and health of the mother."

Both of these are morally ambiguous. If you believe in life at conception, it would seem as impossible to support abortion — for any reason or in any situation — as it would to support taking the life of a newborn.

However, a fetus has a certain intangibility and so, in some ways, does not seem real. A young woman who has been raped, an ultrasound that shows the fetus will suffer from severe maladies, or a birth mother who might very well die if she carries the baby to term seem very real — and preventable through abortion. An unnamed, unseen, unborn entity is swept away and a very real, tangible, difficult situation is averted.

Abortion impacts us as individuals and as a society. How many lives (unborn and mother) has abortion destroyed, and how many has it saved? What about the rights of the birth father?

If abortion is again made illegal, it will not end abortions, just legal abortions. Are we abandoning the defenseless fetus, or are we acknowledging the hard truth that choices have to be made and this most private of all decisions is best left to the individual?

In this discussion of life and death, this conflict between the rights of the unborn and the mother, there are no easy answers, no bumper-sticker solutions. As a nation, we need to try to understand, to continue the conversation, and certainly to try to reduce the number of "potential abortions" and strive to find a way to make this work — for all 300 million of us.

While I empathize with those who have to make this decision for themselves — and I acknowledge that I can never fully understand what and how they feel — I can't help but wonder about the voices of the 40 million, silenced forever, and imagine that they would have wanted the opportunity to speak.

— Scott Harris is a Ventura County political commentator. His Web site is http://www.AlphaState.org.