I first found out about the Kermit Gosnell trial on Facebook. One of my Christian friends posted about it, outraged about the lack of media attention the Philadelphia provider of late-term abortions was receiving. I did some research on the case and found horrific stories of babies born alive before having their spinal cords snipped, of babies being delivered into toilets and struggling in the water, of deplorable, unhygienic conditions resulting in the death of at least one woman. I was outraged, repulsed, horrified. I couldn't help but think about my own two children, how helpless and tiny they were minutes after being born. I couldn't understand how Gosnell could do this and still consider himself human.

The trial has ended — Gosnell sentenced to three life terms in prison — but its effects linger.

Pro-life advocates have made the Philadelphia doctor the poster child for all they believe is wrong with abortion in this country. They argue that anyone who kills a fetus (or a child) should be convicted of murder, regardless of when or how that life was terminated. They say, how can the same practice be considered a mere medical procedure one minute, and murder 30 minutes later?

Pro-choice groups believe that cases like Gosnell's are exactly why abortion should remain legal and well-regulated. They say that criminalizing abortion will only lead to more horrific clinics like the one in Philadelphia. Outlawing abortion won't decrease their frequency; it will only make them more dangerous.

I am as repulsed by seeing both sides use the horrors that went on in that clinic to further their political agendas as I am toward the gruesome events themselves. To reduce the entire narrative of Gosnell's trial — or abortion, for that matter — to a black-and-white, wrong-or-right, yes-or-no dichotomy is absolutely absurd.

Abortion is about a lot more than killing fetuses or babies (whichever term you prefer, given your particular demographic and position on the political spectrum). Abortion is about poverty, about access to adequate contraception, about sex education. But it's also about killing, about a culture that has desensitized us to the termination of pregnancies to the point that folks on Gosnell's staff were taking pictures of the babies with their cell phones instead of calling the police.

The Christian right is perhaps the most vocal and rigid group in the abortion debate. As a Christian, I find that side's reductive position on abortion baffling. Evangelical Christians lobby tirelessly for the criminalization of abortion, but when it comes to other issues, issues which are more attainable and have a much bigger impact on the abortion rate, they remain obtusely on the side that does not further their mission. Access to adequate contraception is the most impactful factor in lowering the abortion rate, yet, most on the Christian right voted against the president whose health-care policies advocate for just that. Is their movement about ending abortion, or something else entirely?

Ever since becoming a mother I can say, without the slightest smidgen of hesitation, that the two best days of my life were the ones when my children were born. I believe wholeheartedly that my children are a gift from God. That the infinite, overwhelming, deeply profound love I have for them is only a minuscule example of the love God has for me and the rest of mankind. That they are the greatest of blessings. Still, I cannot think it godly or Christ-like to stand outside an abortion clinic and call its doctors and clients murderers. I cannot think it godly or Christ-like to shame women who have been victims of rape or incest into making a decision that I, by the grace of God, have never been in a position to have to make myself. I cannot think it godly or Christ-like to use brutally murdered babies to gain votes or political points.

Instead, I like to think about Jesus and what he would do in order to prevent abortions. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't spend his time lobbying outside abortion clinics, but if he did, I think he'd hold a sign that said something like, "I love you. I will feed and clothe you and your baby. I will pay for your medical expenses. I will listen to your story and help heal your wounds."

What Kermit Gosnell did is horrendous, but the fact that the women who sought his services did so because they had nowhere else to go is perhaps the bigger tragedy. Gosnell's clinic has been shut down, but the thousands of poor, marginalized women who feel so helpless that they had to resort to his house of horrors are still among us. For all the talk about pro-choice, I can't imagine going to a place like Gosnell's unless that was your only choice. Moreover, I don't think we were doing anything to value the sanctity of the lives of those women. There's a more sensible middle ground we've strayed away from. Let's not allow a case like Gosnell's to cement us deeper in our trenches.