green-eyed monster (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tscheese) wrote,@ 2008-01-22 20:43:00 |
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Blog for Choice 2008
I didn't see this until now, but I'm not too late to blog for choice:
I am blogging pro-choice.
Abortion isn't "after-the-fact birth control". I've talked with many, many young women who've had abortions, and very few of them regret the decision. Most of them are just scared going in, and relieved going out. Birth control can fail. People can make lousy decisions. I don't plan on ever needing an abortion, but I want to have the freedom to choose one if I ever do find myself in that situation.
A woman should not be forced to carry a child to term if she is not ready for it, physically, emotionally, or financially. If you believe in abstinence-only sex education, or--similarly--if you believe in not having sex before marriage, I am not disrespecting you. Simply consider, however, that it's more difficult to be middle-class than it once was. Even if a couple waits until they're married to have sex, they may still encounter the difficulty of an unplanned pregnancy.
I simply do not believe that every fertilized embryo is a life. It's not the sort of thing I want to put my life on hold for 18 years for. It's not the sort of thing I'd like to wrangle over for child support. It's not reason enough for me to risk my own health and well-being for nine months and then go through a procedure that could injure or kill me.
This is not about convenience. This is not about me saying "oops, I got knocked up, better go grab some after-the-fact contraception down at the abortion clinic." Young women who have abortions do not have them for convenience's sake. They do not have them as "after-the-fact birth control." They have them because they are scared. They have them because they cannot afford a child. They have them because they have health problems.
They have them because they must take teratogenic medication to survive, and even if the child were to somehow miraculously survive to parturition, it would be hopelessly malformed. I've talked to a number of young women who've had abortions for all the reasons above, and none of them regret it. It wasn't a huge moral dilemma for them. They don't lose sleep over "killing their babies." No, most of them did it in the first or second month of pregnancy, as an outpatient procedure that was done in one afternoon, and they simply felt relief after the whole thing is done.
I am not a vessel. Like I said, I don't ever plan on having an unwanted pregnancy. But if I ever do, I do not want to simply be treated as a "container" for it. I don't forfeit all my rights as a human being just because I have a few extra cells cooking inside me. I want to be able to have the choice to say what I do with it. According to the Johns Hopkins Hospital website, about 45% (!!!!!) of pregnancies end in early spontaneous miscarriages. According to my dear friend's mother, who has been a practicing gynecologist for decades, many women may not even realize they've had a miscarriage - they may simply believe they've had an unusually heavy or late period.
So apparently not every fertilized egg is meant to survive to term. Even if they did, I would feel no guilt about removing one...only relief.
Keep choice alive.
I realize there are those reading this who do not believe the same way I do. If you respect me, though, I'll respect you. Thanks for reading this.
I didn't see this until now, but I'm not too late to blog for choice:
I am blogging pro-choice.
Abortion isn't "after-the-fact birth control". I've talked with many, many young women who've had abortions, and very few of them regret the decision. Most of them are just scared going in, and relieved going out. Birth control can fail. People can make lousy decisions. I don't plan on ever needing an abortion, but I want to have the freedom to choose one if I ever do find myself in that situation.
A woman should not be forced to carry a child to term if she is not ready for it, physically, emotionally, or financially. If you believe in abstinence-only sex education, or--similarly--if you believe in not having sex before marriage, I am not disrespecting you. Simply consider, however, that it's more difficult to be middle-class than it once was. Even if a couple waits until they're married to have sex, they may still encounter the difficulty of an unplanned pregnancy.
I simply do not believe that every fertilized embryo is a life. It's not the sort of thing I want to put my life on hold for 18 years for. It's not the sort of thing I'd like to wrangle over for child support. It's not reason enough for me to risk my own health and well-being for nine months and then go through a procedure that could injure or kill me.
This is not about convenience. This is not about me saying "oops, I got knocked up, better go grab some after-the-fact contraception down at the abortion clinic." Young women who have abortions do not have them for convenience's sake. They do not have them as "after-the-fact birth control." They have them because they are scared. They have them because they cannot afford a child. They have them because they have health problems.
They have them because they must take teratogenic medication to survive, and even if the child were to somehow miraculously survive to parturition, it would be hopelessly malformed. I've talked to a number of young women who've had abortions for all the reasons above, and none of them regret it. It wasn't a huge moral dilemma for them. They don't lose sleep over "killing their babies." No, most of them did it in the first or second month of pregnancy, as an outpatient procedure that was done in one afternoon, and they simply felt relief after the whole thing is done.
I am not a vessel. Like I said, I don't ever plan on having an unwanted pregnancy. But if I ever do, I do not want to simply be treated as a "container" for it. I don't forfeit all my rights as a human being just because I have a few extra cells cooking inside me. I want to be able to have the choice to say what I do with it. According to the Johns Hopkins Hospital website, about 45% (!!!!!) of pregnancies end in early spontaneous miscarriages. According to my dear friend's mother, who has been a practicing gynecologist for decades, many women may not even realize they've had a miscarriage - they may simply believe they've had an unusually heavy or late period.
So apparently not every fertilized egg is meant to survive to term. Even if they did, I would feel no guilt about removing one...only relief.
Keep choice alive.
I realize there are those reading this who do not believe the same way I do. If you respect me, though, I'll respect you. Thanks for reading this.
