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I’m pro choice. Since I’ve entered into the world of adulthood, I’ve gotten a lot of questions (most of them weren’t ignorant, thank goodness) regarding my stance on abortion and my religion. I’ve done a lot of soul searching and have honestly given this a lot of though. I’m still pro choice. And I’ll tell you why.

Being pro choice doesn’t mean that you support killing a fetus that could viably be born. When in college I heard about this one girl who was recently “under the weather”. And by under the weather, I mean pregnant. She waiting a long, long time to tell her parents because she was afraid of what her dad would say. During this time, she knew she was pregnant (ie, there was no doubt in her mind), she did not go to the doctor, and she did not attempt to contact the baby’s father. She didn’t stop drinking on the weekends or smoking pot with her friends. She just kept her pregnancy to herself, with the mind set that she’d eventually take care of it.

She didn’t actually take care of it until she started showing, which was pretty far into her pregnancy. Her father went berserk. It’s understandable - she was a child about it - and the family demanded an abortion. When they found out that there were no doctors in the state that would perform the abortion because she was so far along, they flew her across the country to a state where laws aren’t as strict and where there was a doctor willing to do it…for some extra money of course.

And how did they abort this baby? They reached inside of her and broke its neck, then delivered the dead baby. She had about a week’s worth of “sick time” in the hospital, then came home. She was back at college the following weekend, making no excuses. She started sleeping around again within the month (as soon as it was again comfortable, given her surgery).

I’m pro choice. That doesn’t mean that I’m pro her choice.

Let me tell you what does make sense to me:

*It makes sense to me to let a woman who was raped choose to abort the baby, as long as it is done asap.

*It makes sense to me to let a woman abort a baby when her own life is at great risk.

*It makes sense to me to let a woman abort a baby if she doesn’t want the baby, as long as it is done asap.

That last one is what has some people angry at me. And I understand your concern. Abortion should never, never, never be a form of contraception. That’s why condoms and birth control pills exist.

Right now, I think that its too easy for a woman to get an abortion. It’s easy for someone to do it without looking at other options, like adoption. However, ultimately, how can anyone say that a woman’s life is not her own to live? People get abortions for a variety of reasons - they are scared, they know they can’t afford the baby or pregnancy, they didn’t know the daddy well, they’ve made bad lifestyle choices and are worried about the baby’s health, they already have more children than they can handle, etc etc etc. I’m not saying that these are good reasons, but they are reasons. And yes, adoption is an option…but keep in mind that a pregnancy might keep some moms from work or it may be harder to give up a baby than to give up a fetus.

Right now, I do believe that it is too easy for a woman to get an abortion. I think that laws should be set in place to keep women from getting more than one abortion. Once means you’ve made a mistake. Twice means that you’re not being responsible. I also think that women should have to go through educational programs to introduce them to other options, and I think that a court should be able to stop an abortion under some circumstances (like if the father petitions and wants to keep the baby).

What it really boils down to is this: Who am I to judge? This is not a right-versus-wrong dilemma. This is an issue where there is a LOT of gray area. And, when it comes to morally gray areas, I usually like to keep an open mind, because, after all, I didn’t create this world.

And we can argue this issue until our faces turn blue, but do you want to know the biggest reason I support abortion? It will happen no matter what the laws say. Do you really want desperate teens sticking clothes hangers places other than in their closets? Do you really want uneducated doctors butchering women? Do you really want to see an increased suicide rate because some people feel like they have no other choice?

Being pro choice, for me, is mostly about my concern for the health of women everywhere. I’m pro life for the people already in this world, which means being pro choice in other matters.