I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but was uncertain if I was ready for the flurry of spam/ hate mail that tends to accompany these kind of posts. One of today’s PostSecrets changed my mind.
I’m pro-choice. Not because I know what my decision would or would not be if I were in an unfortunate situation, but because to my mind, it is the most acceptable. I’ve seen so many women in unfortunate situations – some who decide to keep the baby, some who don’t. I just always hope that somebody tells them that the decision should be theirs and theirs alone.
These signs are prominent everywhere in South Africa these days:
I saw this sign on the way to ice cream with Friend. I mentioned how these adverts make me angry because the backstreet abortions are so dangerous. Friend said one of the wisest things I have ever heard:
It is not the people who advertise these things that make me angry. It’s the people who promise hell and damnation such that women are too scared and ashamed to go to a proper hospital or clinic. They are the people who ensure the survival of backstreet abortions.
I agree. I know abortion is such a tender issue, and I realise that underlying factors leading to unwanted pregnancies must be addressed sufficiently. There is nothing pleasant to me in the thought of a demised foetus. But even worse is women who feel forced to visit an unaccredited, dirty place to get rid of her shame. Places that don’t offer sufficient physical care, nevermind psychological care.
Life is tough. Oh, we humans like judging. We judge others and ourselves so harshly, and while some say it aides in the forward moving of society, it very often hinders too.
I wish the city administration would tear down all of these advertisements. I don’t want those young girls, whom I see in my daily work, to go under some inexperienced hands.
P.S: If you were wondering… this is the PostSecret that inspired this post.
Feel free to disagree and debate with me. If you keep it clean, it won’t be deleted.
Whispers Unto the Aether 
At this point in my life I’d GLADLY welcome a baby, but ten years ago when I was barely scraping by in college and dating a d-bag? Hell to the no. As a high school teacher I see many pregnant teenagers and so many things run through my head. I don’t believe that they necessarily should abort, but the idea of them ever being NOT allowed to makes me angry.
Ditto – thanks for sharing your views! It’s tough going to school and continuing education while pregnant, but I know some girls to choose to do so – and good for them. As long as it is their own informed choice.
I consider myself to be pro-life -in general- but that only applies to me and my body. I am against using abortions as a form of birth control, when it’s “more convenient” to have an abortion than to take the Pill or use a condom. However, I fully support any woman who cannot bear the idea of having a child, has been raped or abused or has a condition where it is medically unsound. I also understand that sometimes protection fails, and a woman is not in a place to keep or rear a child and I would never blame a woman for having an abortion in that circumstance.
A woman’s body is her own, no one should judge her for her choices. Even if it’s a choice that one disagrees with in respects to one’s own body. I think that the stigma attached to having an abortion needs to be erased, because you’re right, they’ll only go to a more dangerous situation to get rid of the fetus. I would rather see the mother alive and healthy, than dead because of a view society has no right to have.
Thank you! I agree – it’s not okay for a more “convenient” form of birth control. In any case, it still has risks even when performed at an accredited institution, so one should want to avoid having to resort to that at all costs. Great to hear your input!
Terms like “ProLife” and “ProChoice” seem simplistic to me. Most rational beings respect both autonomy and the value of life. We are all for life and for choice, and we all have our own hypothetical scenario in mind where we draw the line. I think most of us draw this line more or less at a similar point (excluding the polar extreme 5% either side, of course).
We should RESPECT people’s decisions, even if we don’t personally HAVE respect FOR those decisions.
I like that – I think you’re right, almost everyone can be considered both pro-life and pro-choice. Thanks for that insight!
I agree with you that the idea of back ally abortions is disturbing and twisted at best. Just the thought of it makes me cringe. I wonder if those who protest outside clinics and are the most adamantly pro-life realize that their actions are not necessarily saving babies but putting women’s lives at risk too?
Exactly… I fear that a woman who wants an abortion will find a way, regardless.
That some ecard is simply brilliant. This is a beautiful post, and I just could not more strongly agree with everything you said here.
Thank you! Sometimes someecards annoy me, but sometimes they really hit the nail on the head.
Some medical standards hold that a fetus has rights when it is viable outside the womb. With first-rate care, that’s about 24 weeks. In other words, at 24 weeks the baby becomes a patient and has rights, and thus the women can no longer say her body is her own. This seems sketchy to me, though, because at 20 weeks the baby is not viable but will be if you **do nothing** and wait 4 weeks.
Yeah, it does make things very difficult. A few years ago a man in my town had his pregnant wife hijacked and shot in the abdomen (he didn’t want the baby, clearly). He ended up being found not-guilty of murder as the baby was still in the womb at the time of the shooting and as such didn’t have “human rights” according to South African law. The thing is though that the baby lived a while outside of the womb before finally dying. Abortion laws are messy at best – on both ends of the spectrum.
I won’t argue or debate with you. I am pro-life. I feel no need to convince you to feel the way I do.
This is a very touchy subject. I respect your willingness to put yourself out there by discussing it. I hope everyone will be respectful and kind as you all discuss it further.
Happy Sharefest. I hope you have a lovely weekend.
Thanks Robin. I’ve been really amazed at the way that people have been discussing the subject in a calm way. And I’ve enjoyed seeing different points of view.
I wish that as a species we were better at predicting the repurcussions of our actions and decisions. I expect most people would consider making people vulnerable by making them desperate and ashamed to be a bad thing.
So true. Forethought seems to be a massive inability on our part. For civilised beings it’s quite embarrassing, actually.