First and foremost I would like to begin with what Thomas Jefferson dubbed the “separation of church and state” also frequently known as the First Amendment of the Constitution:
“The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.”
This Amendment put into effect in 1791 has been key to countless legal disputes which caused uprising in our nation, a few of these lawsuits being Near v. Minnesota (1931), Everson v. Board of Education (1942), and New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964). Separating church and state is key to the fact that the United States does not recognize only one religion and its people are free to worship whomever or whatever they choose. Some of us are not religious in the least and that too is perfectly acceptable in our great nation.
With this being said, I pose one question that is a central argument being discussed in the political arena today: why should someone dictate what I do with my body based on their religious viewpoints? Yes, I am bringing up the topic no one wants to talk about: abortion.
If you haven’t realized yet, I am pro-choice. I fully believe in a woman’s right to her own body. I believe that at no point in my life should someone be able to stop me from doing what I want with my body. I believe that sometimes it is not in the best interest of the mother or the child for the mother to keep that child and I think that is perfectly okay and absolutely the mother’s decision. When I state my beliefs on abortion why am I looked at like I just said we should kill every unborn child? I’m looked at like I just said pro-death not pro-choice.
If abortion is legal, how does that affect anyone except for the mother and the child? Why is that anyone else’s business to feel hurt or upset besides that mother who just had to make the difficult decision of aborting a life growing inside her? Abortion is not a light decision. A woman does not just wake up one day and decide to abort her baby for fun. It is a process with thought behind it and more than likely a reason for it. Abortion being legal does not force anyone to get an abortion, it is for when a woman decides that she is not fit to be a mother at that point in time and I see nothing wrong with that.
What about “extreme” cases such as rape and incest? Why should a mother have to go through the trauma of having her rapist’s baby? Has she not gone through enough at that point? I get the argument “all life begins at conception.” We have all heard it and we get that it is a common argument. But I believe the mother’s life is just as important as the baby’s and if having that child would ruin her life by making her depressed or making her impoverished then she should be able to make the decision for herself. I believe every woman deserves to decide for herself whether she wants to receive an abortion. If you are 100% anti-abortion then don’t get one. It’s as simple as that. Stop worrying about what is an extremely private matter for women who do choose to utilize the legality of abortion.
Your religious views about what you think God wants or what the Bible is saying or what you believe to be sin is irrelevant in political matters and because of the separation of church and state there should be no influence from religious viewpoints. Whether you think it is okay or not, without legal, safe abortions women would be dying getting coat hanger abortions, being punched in the stomach, and pushed down stairs in order to abort their baby. If a woman truly wants an abortion whether it is legal or not she will find a way to get one. It is a matter of safety for the mother to have legal abortions and our country has a duty to half of its population to keep abortions legal.
I want the right to my body and every women should have the right to hers.
