I believe I speak for millions of pro-choice people when I say the above. If you are confused as to how I can be both then consider this scenario:
Parents, not I, have a 16 year old daughter who becomes pregnant and has one of these disorders: pneumonia, severe asthma, cancer, Chrone’s disease, Rhuemetoid arthritis, Osteo-arthritis of the spine,diabetis,Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Scelrosis, mentally challenged, severe phycosis.etc., just to name a few of the possibilities. Teenagers or young adults can be prone to almost all of the same illnesses that effect all ages of people.
None of this is about rape by a Serial Killer and somehow survive or are they pregnant by incest, they got pregnant because they thought they were in love. However, because of their pre-existing disease, if they refuse any treatment for the illness it will mean certain death or permanent crippling, to them. If they are treated, they will live to a ripe old age in many cases, but it will require the risk of abortion. If no treatment is given, because they are pregnant, then both they and the fetus more than likely will die or become paralyzed during child birth. Are any of us, so cruel that we are going to deny this 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 year old girl and these parents the right to insist on abortion so that their daughter can be treated?
Now lets talk about rape and incest, do any of us have a right to insist that this victim or their parents are not going to be raped again if they are put through the pain and agony of child birth? Haven’t they already been through enough? What may be wrong for me may not be wrong for someone else. None of us, not me, nor you, nor your priest, nor your ministers have a right regardless of the circumstances, to make this very difficult decision for any other human being, ever. Our role and their role is to forgive, not to judge, period!
I do not doubt that they’re women and girls that use abortion for birth control or do not want to look bad in a bikini. Just because they abuse the intent and purpose of abortion does that mean then no one woman or girl should ever be entitled to discuss abortion in the privacy of her Doctor’s office and reach the conclusion that it may be the only decision they can make?
My faith and belief for the problems that other people face tells me that as Roe vs. Wade stands it is the only conscionable choice that any of us should keep into law unless there is another more workable solution with both sides bending. Right now I don’t see that happening. The other problem being that regardless of the law there are always people that figure out how to break it. Put it together with children that are used as pawns in divorce cases, are abused and killed, born to drug addicted parents and then ask ourselves, “Are we so arrogant or so self-righteous, in our view, that we or anyone else that have never experienced these heart breaks that do exist, or walked in these shoes have a right to tell them they are wrong?”
Isn’t it no different than saying because Doctors are found guilty of milking medicare of fraudalent charges then we better stop Medi-care? How about out-lawing Social Security entirely because someone is using fraudalent names for 80 people and these people do not even exist but they are cashing all 80 checks? Cars kill when smashed in accidents or out of control gas pedals–lets outlaw them? Planes kill when they fall from the sky so get them out of the sky? People kill each other with guns so lets do away with all guns? People that drink and drive kill so lets outlaw alchohol? Some husbands batter and kill so should we put away all husbands for life? What about boyfriends or men that kill children through abuse? What about doing away with government sanctioned killings on death row?
For those who advocate pro-life and only stop at abortion then I can only say; You are hypocrits. Just as pro-choice has little to nothing to do with abortion neither does pro-life have much to do with cherishing all life. If it did people who advocate pro-life would not treat others in the manner that they do. Threre would be no bigots. Pro-life is simply interference with a woman’s right to make decisions that have been granted her by God when He gave us all free will and with the Constitution that grants us all equal rights and was granted to all women,minorities and genders through The Equal Rights Amendment.
Pro choice is about giving women control over their own health issues,decisions,family planning, if they decide to get an education,decide to become mothers or remain single, become homemakers or have a career. In short the respect that they are owed. If women pay for the insurance premiums or it is provided for by their employers they are entitled to the same healthcare as all men, who also pay into the insurance program through either earned benefits or through payments made.
Why is it more important to act on stopping women from making their own God given right to decide what they must decide for the sake of their own emotional and physical well being, as well as their non-viable fetus, than it is to stop mankind from killing healthy human beings with the capacity towards living many more years? What responsibility do men have for depositing the sperm? What should we force them into? Would castration be appropiate? Is this, in truth, more about the “Good Old Boys” losing control over their women again? We fought this war already in the 1950′s and 60′s. It’s time to move ahead with Equality for All, just as our Founding Fathers intended. If we refuse to then we are guilty of destroying Democracy for all.
