Anti-life

Some people might find it surprising that a mother of four would be pro-choice.  There would be some people in the world that would be baffled how I could look at my children and still support the ability of women to have abortions.  I look at it that I can’t make life choices for others (I mean, other than my husband and kids.)  If I could, I would have Bill Gates or Oprah kindly give me a few million dollars.  (Hey, I’m human!)

I think one of the big misconceptions, at least from a pro-life stance, is that if you’re pro-choice you are pro-abortions.  Not even close.  I’d much rather it was something that didn’t exist at all, but it does and has for centuries.  The best cure for any problem is prevention.  Banning abortion is not a reasonable way to prevent abortion, if that were the case there wouldn’t have been any abortions prior to Roe v. Wade (which why even have it go to the Supreme Court if it didn’t exist and some women felt they needed the option without the fear of dying), but preventing the need for them will decrease the number.  I favor easy access to birth control, incredibly easy access, and excellent sex education.  Knowledge can help reduce accidental pregnancies.  If this wasn’t true then there wouldn’t be a correlation between the increases in abstinence only sex education and increases in teen pregnancies.  (Truth, there’s plenty of info out there on this connection.)

As I said before, I can’t make life choices for other people.  I don’t know their situations, and how can I say what is best for them?  Sure, I can give recommendations when asked, or sometimes even if I’m not asked, but I can’t make their choices for them.  I do know that I really dislike the idea that a woman’s purpose in life is to be a living incubator and that’s really her only true value. 

Additionally, attempting to prevent abortion by making unavailable introduces a slippery slope.  (This is a real slippery slope, unlike the cries that same sex marriage creates the slippery slope to bestiality.)  A common reason from the pro-life movement to object to abortion is because “life begins at conception”.  Now, the slippery slope is that quite a few methods of birth control not only prevent a sperm from fertilizing an egg but can also prevent a fertilized egg from implanting.  No implantation, no pregnancy.  If by chance ovulation still occurs and sperm manages to make it to the egg, the changes to the uterus make it more difficult for the egg to implant.  Realistically, in forms of birth control that use hormones, it is possible that a fertilized egg (that is “a baby”) can be prevented from implanting, which then it would “die”.  If abortion should be stopped because life begins at conception then it is not a leap to see that next some of the most common, and reliable, forms of contraception will be the next foe.

The disagreement over abortion really is a disagreement over women’s rights.  Are women people equal in value to men?  Blocking abortion, and possibly eventually certain contraception, reintroduces an era of women being regulated to home and family.  I am, primarily, a stay at home mother.  It is my choice, but I don’t limit my value to only being a wife and mother.  I am the mother of a little girl.  Right now my daughter is a toddler, but she will grow up.  As she grows up I want her options to be wide open.  Right now she loves to care for her doll babies and stuffed animals (when she’s not trying to hit her brothers with them), and I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up wanting to be a mother when she’s an adult.  I don’t want her to be limited to just being a mother.  Her options should be just as open as her brothers.  I want her to feel that she can decide her purpose in life and not have people she’s never met decide her purpose is to play incubator to babies.