I know that by posting this article with its given title, I have instantaneously triggered the idea in many people's minds that I support so-called "baby-killing," or that I'm just another liberal. To respond to both of those assumptions: lies and generalizations do nobody any good. They simply delay the truth.

Being pro-choice, labeling myself as being aligned with the movement, was and is not something I take lightly. I researched, read articles, watched videos, and then took a stance. This is something I believe in, and it's something for which I will always stand.

However, I didn't always think this way. Before I even really understood abortion and the gravitas of the issue, I thought it didn't make sense. At the time, it baffled me. I thought, like many (sadly) do today, that abortion was a form of killing. I thought it took away a life. But what I was yet to realize was the other life in the situation, the life that everybody seems to ignore: the life of the mother.

If a woman becomes pregnant, she becomes home to another being for nine months. If she wants it, that is a beautiful thing. But if she doesn't want it, who am I (or any of us for that matter), to tell her that she has to remain pregnant?

It all boils down to the idea of bodily autonomy, or the idea that people should be able to control what happens with their bodies. If a woman wants to have sex, that is her choice. If a woman wants to be pregnant, that is her choice. If a woman wants an abortion, that is her choice. It is not my job to dictate how others live their lives. It is not my place to judge.

Even if you consider abortion to be wrong or immoral, that is your right. I will fight for you to express your beliefs, and not because I support them, but because (again), I believe that everybody should be able to make their own choices. You can believe what you choose, but why should your beliefs dictate the way others go about their lives?

And I know it's hard to wrap your head around it, and I know that you might still believe me to be against life, but that isn't true. I am for life. I am for the life of the mother. I am for the life of children in orphanages, of children that are starving, of children that are abused, of children that are neglected. I am for defending the lives already in this world that need support and attention. I am for caring for those that already exist, not for controlling them. I am for bodily autonomy. I am for freedom. I am for choice.

That is why I am pro-choice (and no, not pro-abortion. Do not equate wanting women to be able to control their bodies with wanting them to have a certain procedure).

Choice, bodily autonomy, and freedom. Issues worth fighting for, issues that are by no means one-sided.