In a perfect world, we would only deliver healthy babies into families who want them and are fully able to take care of them. We'd never be faced with the question, "But what about the mother's life?" and birth control would be readily available to anyone who needed it.
In the real world, infant and maternal mortality are still issues, especially here in Georgia, which has the highest rate of maternal mortality in America. In the real world, giving birth is no longer the highly theatrical scenario often portrayed in historical dramas. But, for poor women with limited access to an OBGYN, pregnancy still carries risks. I know how shocking the statistics look in 2017, but consider how in some areas, you drive for hours and hours and don't see a hospital (or much of anything). Yes, women need better health care access; liberals are partly correct about that.
In a perfect world, we would fund other women's health clinics which do everything but abortion. We would also ensure that low-income neighborhoods had better access to these clinics. In the real world, we argue over Planned Parenthood, and many women would insist that PP is essential to their well-being. In the real world, society expects people to choose between women's rights and the unborn's right to life. We don't have to make that choice, but it's often expected of us.
In a perfect world, public school students in Georgia would have adequate information about preventing pregnancies. In the real world, we provide abstinence-only sex ed, year after year, despite overwhelming evidence that it isn't effective. And then we wonder why teenagers still get pregnant and then hide their mistakes with abortions. (How grand that the same people pushing for abstinence-only sex ed claim to be pro-life).
In a perfect world, liberals wouldn't push for women's rights while conservatives push for the right to life. In a perfect world, ensuring access to proper prenatal care that ensures the safety of mother and baby would be a basic human rights issue. But in the real world, it's like you either support PP or you "want women to die!", or something. In the real world, pro-life women who have tried to reclaim the "feminist" label have been informed that they are not welcome in that group.
We don't need PP, but women do need birth control, easy access to health clinics (regardless of socioeconomic status or geographic location) and to feel safe in asking for help if they need it. We shouldn't stigmatize single parenthood or working mothers. Every woman and every baby should feel secure. Ensuring that security pro-life. In a perfect world, we'd have no debate over that.
