I'm Not Saying This Right

Why I am pro-choice

I am pro-choice because reproductive rights are fundamental human rights, not privileges that can be given and taken away by people who do not have the equipment for carrying a child.

Women should have the choice to carry a child or not, because it is our bodies that sustain the fetus from conception to birth. If circumstances are ideal, then pregnancy is a joyful event. However, if there are extenuating circumstances*, the thought of continuing the pregnancy is unbearable. In that case, it’s a good thing that women have the choice to abort, because their lives take priority over the unborn.

Choice is not exclusive to abortion. It includes family planning such as birth control, and even sex education. Access to birth control (and quality sex education) does a great deal to lower the abortion rate, which is why it’s counter-intuitive and counterproductive for the people who oppose abortion to oppose birth control**.

But that’s just the logic behind my beliefs. Primarily, I am pro-choice because I am blessed/cursed by being too fucking empathetic, so I can see why women would make the choice to have an abortion, even if I cannot fully understand their situation. It enrages me to see abortion protesters outside my city’s clinics, holding signs that say inflammatory things like “Abortion is black genocide” (true story) and yelling things like “Ma’am, don’t kill your baby today” or “You will go to hell for this”.

That choice should not be punished or looked down upon, because for most women it is a difficult enough decision to make (some of them struggling with feelings of guilt, self-hatred, and confusion), even before they get to the clinic and are faced with protesters, who try to change their minds, scare them, or make them feel even worse about their actions.

Many women who get abortions are religious, or come from religious backgrounds, and can reconcile their beliefs with their decision; the protesters, on the other hand, usually cite religion as a reason to avoid abortion or contraception, even while having thoughts (hating, judging) and taking actions (murder) that go against religious tenets.

Abortion is not an issue that can be seen as black/white, choice/baby-killing, and most of the people who oppose it do not understand the difficulty and emotion with which the decision is made, nor do they want to.

As I’ve said before: I’m not saying this right. It’s hard to reconcile emotions and logic and facts.

*Among other things: having a large family already, not enough money, rape - including marital rape, being too young to support a child, being too old to have a child, physical health, mental health, fetal anomalies that would lower quality of life, education and personal fulfillment, keeping a job, military duties, etc.

**They tend to oppose birth control AND sex education, welfare programs and public assistance, universal health insurance, etc. Jerkwads.