Imagine if you lived in a country where the government, consisting of a majority of men, tried to tell women what they could and couldn't do with their bodies. Imagine if you lived in a country where the same government said that a woman who was pregnant from rape had to carry the child to term. Unfortunately, no imagination is needed because if you live in the United States, then you live in a country where one major political party is trying to make abortion illegal.

I have nothing against Republicans or conservative thoughts, but I do have a problem with the notion that any man (or any person for that matter) would try to impose his personal belief onto a woman about whether or not she has the choice to have a child.

The larger problem is that for many women, having a child isn't a choice. While many women and their spouses choose whether to have a child or not, there is a traumatized and marginalized group of women who don't receive that luxury.

The result of pregnancy from one-time unprotected sexual intercourse is 5 percent. While that statistic standing alone might not seem like a big deal, try applying it to the 346,830 women who were raped in 2012 according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) . That leaves 17,342 pregnancies that were a result of rape. That's 17,342 women who were not given the choice to conceive a child. Everyone should understand that the choice to have a child and the choice to willingly try to conceive are two entirely separate things.

One could argue that 17,000 is a relatively small number in comparison to the entire population of the United States, and that's true. However, pregnant victims of rape only account for a very small percentage of those seeking abortions (and not all victims of rape get abortions). According to the Guttmacher Institute, 21 percent of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion. While this number may upset some, it goes to show that many women simply aren't ready or able to have a child yet.

Raising a child has a colossal social and economic change on an individual's life. Having a kid is a huge life decision that should be left to the woman (or parents) to decide. It doesn't matter if the woman is a teenager or in her 30s, she should be able to make the choice about whether she wants to have the child or not. In fact, women ages 20-29 account for 57 percent of abortions. Only 17.4 percent of abortions are obtained by women under the age of 19.

Guttmacher also provides statistics on why these women received an abortion. Three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; Three-fourths say they cannot afford to have a child; Three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with their work, school or the ability to care for dependents, and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.

Women don't get abortions because they are lazy. Women get abortions because they know that bringing a child into their lives under their current socio-economic conditions isn't a viable option. Many anti-abortionists say that those who get abortions are selfish and aren't thinking of the unborn child. This isn't necessarily the case.

Women also don't get abortions because they are sexually promiscuous or unsafe when having sex. Fifty-one percent of women who have abortions had used contraceptives during the same month they got pregnant, most commonly condoms (27 percent) or a hormonal method (17 percent), according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Misrepresentation of facts and uninformed opinions aside, the biggest problem with the conversation on abortion is that it isn't addressed as a matter of women's health. Abortion isn't spoken about in the way that it should be considering: addressing the right for a woman to be able to have control over whether she has a child or not.

Abortion should not be a political controversy. It should be a right for women to choose whether they are ready to have a child or not. Without assessing the quality of life for the woman and child, screaming pro-life rhetoric doesn't seem to do any good.

Women in government aren't forcing men to get vasectomies. Men shouldn't bar women from getting an abortion. No one should. The choice to have a child belongs to the individual(s) having it and no one else. It's time to stop bartering over women's rights and using the health of women as a political bargaining chip. It's time to shift the conversation about abortion.