With the recent (and beautiful) decision of the Supreme Court to uphold the basic right to abortion for women in Texas, the High Court has set the tone for an era of upheld family planning, women's health and freedom. Texas recently proposed a law that would've shut down a majority of the state's abortion clinics in the aims of making it increasingly more unfeasible for women to have easy access to safe and legal abortions. However, this case appeared before the Supreme Court and in a 5-3 ruling in favor of women, the court decided to strike down the republican controlled state of Texas' demands for abortion clinic closures.

A lot of pro-lifers are probably already appalled by what I've typed, but let's look at abortion from the eyes of a woman needing an abortion.

There she is. She is drunk, unable to speak. She's knocked out cold from a masculine stew of alcohol and roofies. She lies there on the ground unaware of what is happening if she is lucky; however, if she is not one of the lucky ones she'll be totally conscious of what is happening, but will not be able to speak out against it. She sees a strange man over her. She tries to tense up, to scream out, to pull away; the rest is the ending of a tragic story. The baby that Texas wants her to keep is a token of this night.

There she is. She is in the same position as above, except the man this time was not an acquaintance. The man is not an ex-boyfriend. The man is blood, and the man is hardly a man. The baby that Texas wants her to keep is a token of this encounter.

There she is. She's applying for public assistance. She never foresaw this happening to her. Three months ago she had a steady paying job, a beautiful home and a loving fiancé. She had it all. She was the breadwinner. She had it all. She was happily pregnant; she was able to provide for herself, her fiancé, and their little one on the way. She was so excited to be a mom, so that she could give her little one a better life than what she had growing up. She lost everything. Her company downsized and cut her salary; she lost her home, her car, her fiancé. Her life is crumbling around her, and now she would've been forced to begin a life of extreme poverty with a newborn?

There she is. She was on the pill. She knew she was on the pill. She also knew that the pill wasn't completely effective. It failed. The condom broke. She's being forced into a life that she doesn't want to live. She's not a mothering type.

There she is. She accidentally skipped a day of the pill but forgot. She went against society by flaunting her feminine sexuality. She knew the dangers of it, but it happened. She bears the consequences of a dizygotic response. Her body is now a host for replicating cells of this new individual. She's 16. She's 17. She can't have a child.

There she is. Pregnant. She realizes that she cannot have a child because her body will not let her. Her body is too small — something is wrong internally. Neither a C-section, nor forced birth will offer her anything but near death or fatality. She chooses an abortion to save her life instead of ending her life for a child that may or may not make it.

There she is. She's concerned that since she cannot provide for her expectant child that she will have to throw them in for adoption or the foster care system. She worries about the degrading mental consequences of subjecting a new soul into an unforgiving society with no stability. She worries about the mental development and social development of her upcoming offspring. She chooses quality of life over just simply producing a newborn.

There she is. She is you, she is the girl next door, she is our teacher, she is our senator, she is human. She is no less human than me or you. She demands that she have say over her body. She demands that her body will remain autonomous and not be affected by mystical beings and deities. She wishes to exercise her right to the freedom of choice granted to her by the Supreme Court, but Texas thinks that her life is less important than a fetus. Texas thinks that she is worth punishing for making a mistake. Texas thinks that women affected by rape or incest deserve to bear the token of their encounters. Texas thinks that women's lives aren't anymore important than a bundle of cells that is not homeostatic and must live inside said woman's body in order to survive.

The truth about abortion is that it gives women the right to their own bodies. It gives women and families the ability to plan when they become parents. If the time is not right, no one should have the right to tell someone that they should be punished into parenthood. Parenting is a commitment that needs to be fully fulfilled by both parties in order to ensure the life of the offspring is quality and not just simply a state of being. Abortion allows people to choose their lives and not the other way around. Abortion helps build stronger families by allowing women (and men) to plan sufficiently for the next step of their life instead of forcing them into a life that they don't want. Abortion is about freedom and quality of life.