Everyone has their own opinion on abortion. Like many issues of our modern society, we’ve boiled down the argument into two narrowly defined sides, pro-choice and pro-life. Like every complex issue, though, there are actually a number of points of view which are not represented by either pro-choice or pro-life. The National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day is a time when we’re asked to look at the issue from one of those other points of view, namely the abortion providers themselves.

The treatment abortion providers receive at the hands of radical pro-choice advocates has almost become clich?. Abortion providers have been killed for their profession, and it isn’t rare to hear of clinics being threatened with violence. Of course, I doubt most people who are pro-choice would ever even think about such an extreme reaction to an abortion clinic, but none-the-less it does happen.

As I see it, the National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day isn’t so much about whether or not abortion is right or wrong. I don’t even think there is an answer to such a question. Abortion is such a complex issue that to blanket it with such an oversimplification as right or wrong would only serve to obscure the truth.

Of course, no one ever wants to get an abortion. One of the criticisms of abortion is how emotionally scarring it is for the woman getting the abortion. Who would want to inflict that kind of pain of themselves? And I don’t think very many people would argue that even the smallest and earliest spark of life isn’t really a life. But when faced with the decision of whether to get an abortion or not, many people believe the only person who should decide is the woman.

While abortion providers don’t have to be pro-choice, they most likely are. For their beliefs they’re threatened with violence, or at the very least harassed more than anyone really deserves. They may have a different point of view, perhaps even one that equates to evil in some people’s minds, but that doesn’t mean they deserve to be harassed for having it.

While many people are victimized simply because of their point of view, abortion providers seem to be persecuted more often than others. People who provide similar services, executioners for instance, aren’t nearly as disdained as abortion providers. As a society, we have less of a problem with putting to death inmates than forcefully terminating a pregnancy.

But National Abortion Provider Appreciation Day isn’t really about abortions at all. It’s about learning to respect someone else’s point of view. It’s about remembering that, for the kind of robust debate on every issue democracy requires of its people, every point of view must be allowed to exist, whether we agree with it or not.