Disclaimer: this article is in no way meant to degrade or undermine those who are participating in the Pro-Life Movements happening all over the country. This is simply my opinion on a very politicized topic, and I wanted to let people know why I believe the Pro-Life Movement is not all it's cracked up to be.
I will be differentiating between the movements and the idea with capitalization when referring to the movements and lowercase when referring to the idea.
To begin with, I'm going to put it out there that I think most people are pro-life, in the simplest of terms. No one sits there and thinks "you know, I think that we should just kill babies. Let's just kill all the babies." If they do, they're probably mentally unstable and definitely not in the general population of "sane" humans, whatever that means these days. Humans among the general population of the world think that other humans should live, especially if they've done nothing wrong (e.g. children). Killing happens almost every day, but if another human commits murder it is most often because they are especially violent people, were hurt by someone emotionally/physically, we traumatized in some way, or sometimes because they're "crazy." Basically, murder happens because people perceive threat to themselves or others (which may or may not be accurate) and decide that killing said person is the best way to go about it. Babies have not hurt anyone, so most people would agree that it is not okay to kill babies.
Sometimes, abortions happen for a similar reason. They happen because the women who get pregnant have health issues due to the pregnancy, or there is a very high chance that they will die in childbirth. Often times, they know that the child will likely die or be born horribly deformed with little chance of functioning normally or even surviving through the night. The threat to the mother can be so severe that abortion is the only option.
Other times, abortions happen for very different reasons. Sometimes abortions happen because the woman cannot possibly afford to take care of the child. Sometimes it is because the woman does not feel prepared to have a child. Sometimes a woman is not emotionally stable enough to take care of a child.
All of these reasons are valid reasons to get an abortion. Recently, however, Donald Trump made some pretty disparaging remarks about what late-term abortions supposedly are. Many women responded to these comments outraged, and rightly so. Women who have gone through late-term abortions shared their stories, almost all of them saying that their pregnancies were wanted but they physically could not have the children without dying, or the child would die whether or not an abortion took place. My point with this is simple: abortions are terrible things to go through, and an awful decision for any woman to have to make. Most women think long and hard about having an abortion done. It's not a quick decision.
With this, I want to reiterate that no average human being is not pro-life. However, the Pro-Life Movements happening all throughout the country are trying to make the assumption that anyone who is pro-choice is "pro-death." In the political realm, there are typically two opposite sides of the spectrum. For example, with the death sentence you are either pro- or anti-capital punishment. That doesn't mean that there aren't those who fall somewhere in-between, it just means that there are two completely opposite sides of the spectrum. With abortion laws, there are "pro-lifers" and "pro-choicers." We've all heard both sides of it. With most pro-choicers - me included - you hear "it's none of my business what other people do with their bodies." I've also heard a lot of "I would never get an abortion, but who am I to tell other's what to do?" With pro-lifers, I've heard a lot of negative things. One thing that really stuck out to me was when someone directly asked me if I enjoyed killing innocent people.
NO. No, no, no.
Pro-choice is NOT about wanting to kill babies. It's not about killing anyone. It is incredibly hard for most women to even come to the decision to have an abortion in the first place. At the stage where most people get abortions, the "baby" is not even large enough to be considered a person yet. It's at a stage where technically it could be considered a parasite. At that point, you're killing cells. Which is not killing humans in any way. And, as said before, late-term abortions are almost always wanted pregnancies. We are not pro-death. We do not want to kill innocent people. In fact, some Pro-Lifers who refuse to see merit in any abortions seem pro-death when it comes to the possibility of the mother dying and they still do not approve. But, alas. We cannot come to agreements on everything.
All in all, I cannot support the Pro-Life Movement. I can't do it because I believe in the right to choose what to do with your own body. You cannot dictate what others do, and you cannot try to claim that those who support choice support murder. It's just not the truth. I wish that people who are pro-life would realize that what happens to others does not affect them, and making abortions illegal is going to send us backward to back-room coat hanger abortions - eventually making needed abortions even less safe. It breaks my heart to see women who have made the difficult decision to get an abortion get attacked on the street because of their decisions made for their own body. I can't change everyone's mind, but I hope that one day I can live in a world where no one tries to control other people's bodies.
