As a student on campus that is active in the Students for Life @ OSU group, I often get asked why I am pro-life. I am aware that there are many stereotypes surrounding both the pro-life side and the pro-choice side. These stereotypes are often wrong like most are, and I write this article to confront the pro-life stereotype. I am sometimes asked if I am pro-life because of my faith or my upbringing. I know this because I have been asked the faith question before when discussing pro-life ideas while supporting a crucifix around my neck. However, that is not the reason I am pro-life. Actually a majority of the time I can describe the pro-life stance without adding my personal religious beliefs into the conversation. The reason I am pro-life is because not only am I human but a young woman.
To start, my journey to becoming pro-life was completely brought on by my own curiosity. I was walking through the Quad one day as a freshman and there was a table there for the pro-life group. Though, like most students walking through there, I tried to avoid any eye contact with anyone working at the tables because most of us are “too busy” to talk. However, I did talk to the leader of the pro-life group, and soon I was writing my name and email down on the list. Next thing I know, I am marching through campus in the evening to a pro-life meeting to see what it was all about. Flash-forward to now. I am going to start my senior year, and I have been active and passionate about pro-life since that first meeting. My pro-life passion was not born in my church, or at home, or in a Sunday school class; it came to life in a room in the MU among fellow OSU students.
So what did happen to me in that meeting? Why did I become so passionately pro-life? Well we didn’t chant about why we dislike pro-choice, they didn’t teach me that Planned Parenthood was the equivalent to a butcher house, there was no hate or plotting, it was just peace. I learned how abortions are performed, I learned about the mother and her struggles before, during and after the procedure, and I learned about the creation of life. I saw the effect abortion had on woman and that struck home for me. As a young woman that will graduate from college in June, I feel the pressure to succeed in my career, personal life, and from within my family. Many of us young ladies carry this pressure with us, knowing that an unplanned pregnancy could potentially “destroy” those future plans. As I became pro-life, I thought why do I see it that way? Why do I feel that a child would “destroy” a woman’s plans? Then I remember that is what I have always heard from friends, media, TV, and in books. The word “shame” popped into my head because that is what our society has done to pregnant unwed mothers; shammed them. As I became a pro-lifer I wanted to help save children, but I also wanted to help defuse the shame that comes with unplanned pregnancies.
As a college girl, I have heard it many times from friends or friends of friends: “Oh I hope I am not late, that would so mess up my life.” It’s a cliche that is portrayed in films and TV shows, “The girl who got prego and dropped out,” but it’s never, “The guy who got that girl prego and dropped out.” This is one of the issues that I have learned from being pro-life because to me that answer to an unplanned pregnancy isn’t the death of an unborn child. The answer is love and support, not shame.
When I am asked why I am pro-life and not pro-choice, I always answer, "Because I would feel selfish taking that choice for myself when unborn children don’t have the right or the voice to make a choice." As the pro-life passion set in, I discovered that abortion is a matter of civil rights. A fetus should have the same amount of rights as the mother who carries them. The society as a whole shouldn’t look at unplanned or unwanted pregnancies as social burdens because soon it turns into what has recently occurred. If a society says that aborting children is okay, then what is wrong in harvesting their organs and body-parts? That way there is some profit to gain from a woman’s unfortunate moment. As my time and studies of the pro-life movement continued, the more I became passionate, and when issues like the recent Planned Parenthood debate, I become more empowered in the movement.
To wrap up the reasons I am pro-life at the age of 21 years old, it isn’t because of my religion, upbringing, or political views, but because I think life is precious. As a nation we protect trees, endangered creatures, and the ocean, but seem to not view the beginning of life as important. The stereotype of pro-lifers being radical Christians that yell about hell isn’t true, just like the stereotype of pro-choices hating babies isn’t true. In society, many preconceived ideas of people are always a little off and I hope that these words have helped open up a different view of young pro-lifers. The conflict with abortion doesn’t only involve an older generation but it involves our current generation. The idea of life doesn’t belong between two opposing sides, arguing which one is more correct. The idea of life is a gift, and so are the women who carry it and who should be treated with respect.
