Today is blog for choice day, so if you're pro choice, do your part and let people know.Pro choice. Pro life. These terms are very misleading.. No one who's pro life is actually saying that people never deserve to have choices and, obviously, people who are pro choice still respect life.
Imagine, if you will, it's a hot, heavy summer night. Crickets sing in the fields just past your house where the grass is knee high and brown from the intensity of the sun. You're sitting on your back porch, thinking about your birthday party. You just turned thirteen and now, you feel, the world is at your fingertips.. you're finally growing up! You hear the screen door creek open as your mom's brother steps out onto the porch. You barely know him, but he's very friendly and likes to laugh. He starts talking to you about growing up, becoming an adult. Maybe you'll want a boyfriend soon. He asks, do you ever look at boys like that? He's touching your knee and suggests a walk in the field. You feel a bond with him.. like your dad maybe.
Congratulations. Two weeks later you find out you're pregnant. Fear, shame, horror. You never told anyone that he raped you, but you have to do something now. Not only do you fear the emotional and psychological pain from carrying a baby that was forced upon you so harshly, but you know there's a risk of deformities and a risk to your own life since you are so young.
This is why I am pro choice. Because I know how emotional carrying a baby is. I know the fear and the anxiety.. and I was actually trying to get pregnant! Yet I spent night after night in tears, wondering how I was going to do this. Can you imagine being raped? Can you imagine fearing for your life because of your age or other physical factors?
I consider myself a moderate pro choice because I don't believe in casual abortion. I think it should be a last resort, depending on circumstances. Rape, incest, danger to mother, or severe physical or mental deformities are all good and valid reasons for terminating a pregnancy. Do I think you should have it done because you just don't feel like it right now? Even if you're otherwise able to carry the child full term? No. I'm a huge supporter of adoption and I hope to adopt or foster someday even though I do want my own children (and already have one).
It's not black and white. It's not all or nothing. It's a complicated issue and a morally heavy one. Abortion isn't anything new.. it's been performed for thousands of years. In ancient greece there was an herb that worked so well for "casting out" children that the plant became extinct. A woman has power over her own body. We carry the child, we experience the pain, we get sick, we hurt, and we give birth... the whole experience is traumatic and painful, not even factoring in depression due to hormone changes or other outside psychological forces.
It's a shame that personal choices and freedoms and, indeed, basic human rights, should be anywhere near the slimy underbelly of the world that is politics, but here in the US it's a common issue and a hot topic for our elected officials. It's important to vote for officials that will uphold human rights because, let's face it, if a woman's freedom over her own body is compromised we will start a heinous backslide. How would you like to be arrested for being gay? Or for having sex in any position except the missionary one? (Oh, please, no!) . Most of society's so called "traditional values" are nothing but hatred and bigotry wrapped in a cross and a pretty bow.
Are you pro choice or pro life? Let me know what you think and why.
