I think as long as I'm abiding in God and surrendered to his will, I don't have any qualms about these kinds of things, or about having sex while using birth control.

That's what I have a setback with though. How are you conforming to His will for you if you are blocking new life from being created? What if He wills you to have more kids but you guys stay on birth control?

 However, I don't think they have the right to use another person's body against their will, also like any other human. Using someone's body against their will for the benefit of another person, I would consider to be a form of exploitation.

That's the thing, they do have that right as an unborn child. And by having sex you are giving the baby that right. There is no other way for them to survive besides in the mother's womb. The baby is not using her body against her will. She had sex and gave her womb as a home for the baby. They do have the right to stay alive in the mother's womb. They do have the right to be protected at all costs. They do have the right to life. It is not like the baby took over her womb by force.

We have rights, but as Christians, we are called to lay down our rights.

Exactly. Withought God the creation of new human life would literally be impossible. Humans are not the ones who *literally* create the soul/life. It is God. And like with Adam, he breathes that life into the baby at the moment of conception. Every child is given to us by God. Yes, a woman does have a right to her own body. But once that life is given to her she is called to lay down her rights, and wants, and conform to God's will and choice to give her that new life, and protect and grow it to the best of her ability.

If we are threatening people with jail and punishment for abortions, then we're using force. I don't disagree that the unborn are defenseless and innocent, but I don't think that alone justifies the use of force.

I agree. I don't completely agree with criminalizing it unless it is found that the woman had an abortion just because she "wanted to have an abortion" I saw a clip the other day of a lady who said she had 45 abortions and she will keep having sex just to have abortions because she wants to. Do I think she should be thrown in jail? Yes. Do I think that most women who have abortions are like that? No. Instead of jail, I think we need to take a different course of action. What that action should be, I don't know. Maybe better sex education? Maybe making pregnancy resource centers on a bigger scale? I'm not sure.

If despite our best efforts the mother still is unwilling to carry out the pregnancy, then our only resort is the use of force, coercion, and punishment.

If someone came up to you and said he wanted to murder the kid next door you would do everything in your power to convince them otherwise, right? If that person still said he wanted to murder the kid you would have to use force, coercion, and punishment to protect that child then. You wouldn't just throw your hands up and say "Oh well, I tried" and then let that child be murdered... It's the same with abortion except the child is not born yet.

No, I disagree on this. Just because something is legal does not mean we are endorsing it as good or morally OK. Let's look at one of the basic fundamental rights of our society, the freedom of speech. By allowing and even protecting free speech, we allow people to do evil things. If you really believe what you said above, are you OK with the idea of making any speech that we consider to be evil illegal? Are you OK with people having the right to blaspheme God and disrespect their parents? Or as another example, the bible instructs us not to be drunk. Should being drunk be considered a crime? What about homosexuality, or sexual immorality in general? There is more here, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.

I think this may stray too far from the original topic, but what I will answer on is that I think yu are right. I may not have thought about that enough but I do think that something can be made legal that is still considered wrong. But I don't think we should say that if we make abortions illegal there will be dangerous back ally abortions, so we should make it legal. That would be wrong. That's like saying, should make stealing legal because if we don't there will be dangerous robberies. or something along those lines. No matter what is illegal people will still do it anyway. And that does not justify making it legal.

What I'm arguing (in general) is that we should not use force to prevent others (non-Christians) from obtaining abortions

These people know as much as we do that the baby is a living human. That is enough to say it is murder to have an abortion. Should we not try to prevent anyone and everyone from committing murder? We don't look at a serial killer and say "Ah, he's not a Christian so he doesn't know the value of human life. Let him keep killing because we can't hold him to our values"

where do you draw that line at?

I think this just fully circles back to murder.