Pro-Choice Does NOT Mean Pro-Abortion

Let me first start by saying that this post is solely made up of my opinions, my point of view, and my perspective and I am entitled to that.  Clearly, this is a very controversial topic in this country on a moral, religious, and a political level.  I encourage you to read this post with an open mind and a kind heart and not attack me for my opinions; just as I will not attack anyone for theirs.

There are so many misguided opinions about the Pro-Choice movement.  So many wrongly assume that if someone is Pro-Choice, they are pro-killing fetuses or in support of using abortion as a consistent birth control method.  That is not the case.  I haven’t heard of a single Pro-Choice person who has an attitude of, “Woo hoo! Let’s kill fetuses.”

For me, being Pro-Choice means that I am in support of a woman having control over her own body, not the government.  I am exactly what it says, in support of my right to choose and being able to exercise that right when it comes to whether or not I want to have a baby.  Why should the government decide what I can and cannot do with my body?  If you don’t want to get an abortion, then don’t.  No one is saying you have to, I just want the right to have one if I choose to.

abortion is murder

 

Religious groups are the worst sometimes, preaching that it is against religion to have an abortion.  Again I say, if it’s against your religion, don’t get one.  The church shouldn’t decide what I can and can’t do with my body.  It’s my body, therefore it should be my choice.  Church and religion dictates enough about what people can and can’t do.  It needs to stay out of my uterus!

We have a separation of church and state.  I think we need to create the separation of church, state, and body!  What’s next?  Is the government and/or the church going to say it should be against the law to get tattoos because it alters the natural skin we were born with?  Or maybe we can’t dye our hair for the same reason?  Piercings should be outlawed too because we weren’t born with holes in those places.  How about preventative mastectomies?  We will just have to live with the fact that we carry the BRCA gene and getting breast cancer is part of ‘god’s plan’.  What a crock of shit!

Reversing Roe v. Wade would be a mistake on so many levels.  What about a woman who is raped?  Should she be forced to carry someone’s baby who is sick mentally?  A baby that was created out of an act of hate?  I know there are some who think, it’s not the baby’s fault so why punish the baby?  I say, why punish the woman?  Why make her carry something that was created during an act of violence when it could easily be taken care of?  Most people who think it is wrong to terminate the pregnancy of a rape have obviously never been raped.  Who wants a nine month reminder that you were attacked and forced to have sex against your will?  I know I wouldn’t.

Then there’s the situation when carrying a pregnancy to term would endanger the life of the woman.  So that shouldn’t be allowed either?  Ridiculous!  What if the woman is already a mother and has 3 other children?  Is that fair that she should deprive her other children of growing up without their mother?  What about a baby that will not live once born?  Should a mother carry that pregnancy to term when the baby has no chance of surviving?  It would be impossible to carry the baby and not bond with it.  Then she has to go through the birth process, which is far from easy, only to know that the baby will die.  It sounds like torture.

the pro choice arguement

 

 

I am a mother of two wonderful little boys.  Having my children changed my life for the better and I love being a mom.  BUT… I was ready to become a mother.  I was married, had my career in order, and my husband and I made the decision together to get pregnant.  It doesn’t happen this way for everyone.  If we overturn Roe v. Wade then we are essentially forcing women to have babies when they aren’t ready to do so.  Yes, adoption is an option if you don’t want to keep the baby, but some women don’t want to have to be pregnant.

I’m not suggesting abortion should be a method of birth control, but we should be able to choose to have one if we want or need to.  Let’s remember that no birth control is 100% effective unless you completely abstain from sex.  What about the responsible woman who knows she is not ready to get pregnant, takes the necessary precautions, but then her birth control fails.  Should she be forced to remain pregnant because the government says she has to?  No one should be forced to do anything they don’t want to do!

The religious side of it says that abortion is wrong because life begins at conception.  There is no scientific evidence to support this.  This is just religious opinion, yet politicians use it as their guide as to whether or not they are Pro-Choice or Pro-Life.  There’s that church creeping into state again.  Politicians letting their personal religious beliefs decide what is best for women!  In my opinion, life doesn’t begin at conception because a zygote cannot live outside of the womb.  How can we say something is living if it can’t actually live without being in the uterus?  But, if that is what you believe then that’s fine.  Then you, too, can exercise your right to choose to and choose to not get an abortion.

There are fanatical pro-lifers that have decided it is okay to murder doctors that perform abortions.  So murdering a living, breathing doctor who is helping a woman exercise her right to choose is okay, but having an abortion is not?  There is something wrong there.

Just because we keep abortion legal does not mean that anyone has to have one, it just means you can have one if you want to or need to.  It comes down to one thing – only I should be allowed to make the decisions about my body!  The government and the church need to stay the hell out of my uterus (and the rest of my body for that matter)!  I am a mother and I am still Pro-Choice.  Having had my own children has not changed that for me.  I have always known I wanted to have children, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that if I had gotten pregnant before I was married and ready to be a mother, I would have exercised my right to choose.

abortion movement

I leave you with one last thing to think about that comes from a bumper sticker I had on my car when I was in college: if you can’t trust me with a choice, then how can you trust me with a child?

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About Mental Mama

So who is "Mental Mama" you ask and it she actually mental? Some people may say that I am, but I assure you only a little! I am married and have 2 amazing little boys who are 4 and 2. Thank goodness my dog is female or else I might be totally boxed out in my own home. I have an MS in Psychology and am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. I have been in this field for over 12 years now. I work part-time as the mental health therapist in an inner city elementary/middle school, but I am a Mom first and foremost. I have travelled the world; love wine, music, and food; have great friends and a wonderful family; and have a passion for clothes and shoes (I have almost 200 pairs) {or maybe I should say "had a passion for" before I became broke after having kids}! I learn something new everyday from my kids (both my own and those I work with) and am thankful for that.

  • Lauren

    I appreciate your post. I agree 100%. To have a CHOICE means to have the ability to decide between two (or more) outcomes. All women should have that choice.
    Personally, it makes me sick when I see anti-choice people preaching about their views and trying to pin their lifestyle on others. If they don’t want to have an abortion– then it is their CHOICE to not have one. They shouldn’t force others to not be able to make their own choices.

    • mental mama

      Thank goodness someone got the point of my post, Lauren! It’s all about CHOICE.

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  • luckymama

    “If youcan’t trust me with a choice, how can you trust me with a child?”

    “Choice” means – taking a small human being with a heartbeat, brainwaves, and (typically) most or all of their major organs in place, and inserting either poison that burns them to death slowly, from the inside out; or, eviscerating them with suction and/or curette. Actually, the last is more humane, because being pulled apart piece by piece is a lot quicker death than saline. Or maybe we could try a hysterotomy, where the premature child is left to die in a cold metal bowl.
    So let’s try this again:
    “If you can’t trust me with putting him/her through an inhumane, untimely death at my own hands, how can you trust me with a child?”
    The answer is: I don’t “trust” anyone to kill an innocent person.
    Sincerely, someone who has been through 5 unplanned pregnancies, and is willing to help other moms in need.

    • http://theinsideowman.com Mental Mama

      Interesting isn’t it? 5 unplanned pregnancies? You would think after maybe the first two or hell, even the first three you would have learned about a little thing called “birth control.” (But let me guess, you don’t believe in that, right?)
      Maybe I should have added, “if you can’t trust me to be smart and responsible, then you can’t trust me at all.”
      How about that?
      I’m all for helping other Moms in need, but my way of helping them would be to allow them to choose to do what they feel is right for them and not force them to do something they don’t want to do. No one should be forced to remain pregnant if they don’t want to.
      The majority of women I know who have been pregnant, found out very early on- at about the 8-10 week mark. If someone finds out they are pregnant and then decides right away to get an abortion, the fetus does not have most or all of their organs in place. I’m not advocationg late term abortions, even I think that’s a bit twisted. If you find out you are pregnant, then make a decision as soon as possible about carrying the baby or not. With that being said, a choice is still a choice though and it’s not my place to tell someone what they can do or when they can do it. It’s also not my place to judge.
      I assume your tossing around of big words and medical jargon was meant to have an affect, but sorry, it didn’t. Everyone seems to be missing my point, which is only that everyone should have the right to choose what they do with their body. Read the title of my post again and you might get what my point was.

  • Marilyn Moen

    A woman’s choice is made when she decides to have sex with a man. She has all the choices she has at that time. God is the one who creates people. So if you decide to have sex and God blesses you with a child, then the choice has already been made. To choose abortion is to choose death.

    • http://theinsideowman.com Mental Mama

      Acutally, it was my husband and I that created our children. Not god. No one was in the bedroom with us when our children were conceived- only us (no threesomes for me thank you very much).
      And aren’t you glad that you can choose to be so judgmental on others? See? Freedom of choice worked out for you, didn’t it? Too bad you are way too high up on your pedestal to see that everyone should have the right to choose.
      P.S. Women who are raped have not “decided” to have sex so that blows your theory out of the water.

  • Allison

    I grew up with a Prochoice family and I always thought that was okay. I personally wouldn’t “choose” abortion, but everyone ought to have that “right”. After becoming an adult I realized that Pro Choice is No choice for the baby. and yes, I am the mother of 9 living breathing humans. I also have one wiggling squirming kicking growing baby within me now, I guess it is alive? or being electrocuted? Of course I am being sarcastic, this baby is very much alive and has been for over 6 months now. Can it survive outside my body? Probably not. But a fullterm newborn baby left on a table? It won’t survive long either. These babies have their own blood type, their own DNA from conception. It can be pulled from MY body very early in the pregnancy to identify it. Also, you use the rape situation. Let me tell you, removing the baby from your body by abortion does not remove the horror of being raped. And although that is used by a lot of prochoice advocates, the actual cases of rape being the reason for choosing abortion is extremely low. I have read less than 1% of all abortions actually. And the original Roe vs Wade person lied about having been raped and later recanted her story. She is now a prolife activist and regrets her earlier actions. The other situation you stated was the risk health of the mother. This is also used by the medical field to justify late term abortions. Well, whatever health problems have been worsened by the pregnancy have already occurred, and delivering a baby either by a live birth or partial birth abortion is going to have the same effect on the mother’s health. At that point, all attention should be on getting both baby and mother the best healthcare possible and giving the baby up for adoption. Instead of insisting that you know these things to be true, try using your “open mind” to consider the long term effects of how killing one’s own baby is helpful. A large percent of people who have abortions go on to have repeat pregnancies and/ or abortions in just a few months, look those statistics up. So did it “fix” the problem? We are created to reproduce, not kill our offspring.

    • http://theinsideowman.com Mental Mama

      It seems that you missed the entire point of my post, which was that I personally believe each and every person should have the right to choose what they do and do not want to do with their bodies and that no one – not the government or a religion or anything else- should be able to tell me what I can and cannot do.
      Also, in my post I said the whole thing was my opinion and I asked people to not attack me for my opinions, which I am entitled to. Yet, you mock me for stating that I have an “open mind.” I didn’t mock anyone in my post.
      It is clear that my mind is open and your mind seems to be closed because you cannot see how a personal choice is just that- personal. As I said, I’m not pro-abortion, I’m pro being able to choose what to do with MY body.
      I also do not view abortion as “killing” because as I said, you can’t kill something that can’t live on its own outside of the uterus. To make a statement about a newborn baby not being able to survive if left on the table is ludicrous. There is simply no comparison between the two. A newborn, full-term baby has the ability to live outside of the womb if taken care of. A zygote or fetus in its early stages does not have the ability to live outside of the womb. Yes, a fetus moves (even if not being electrocuted) and I know this because I have children of my own. Moving does not equate to being able to live outside of the womb.
      As for a woman having an abortion because carrying to term may endanger her life- I never said anything about a pre-pregnancy health condition. If a woman has a health condition and she knows she should not get pregnant because it could kill her and she gets pregnant anyway- that’s clearly a huge lack of judgment on her part. I was talking about the woman who gets pregnant and then finds out there is some odd complication with the pregnancy that could endanger her life. Please don’t put words in my mouth.
      As for your statement about statistics- I’m not going to look anything up. I don’t have time for that. Not to mention that stats aren’t fool proof because stats can only be created when people report things and report them truthfully. I know people who have had AN abortion. They didn’t have repeat pregnancies and/or abortions in a few months. How someone gets pregnant every few months is beyond me anyway. It’s actually quite difficult to get pregnant being that there is only a short window of time for ovulation. Those people must ovulate on a constant basis if they can get pregnant and have abortions in “just a few months” as you stated.
      Either way, you asked if it “fixed” the problem. Obviously having an abortion, for whatever reason, did “fix” the problem for those women in their personal situations. Thier personal situation and their personal choice. It may not be the choice you would make and it may not be the choice I would make, but it’s just that- a PERSONAL choice.
      Reproducing is a personal choice and in my opinion we weren’t born to reproduce- we were born to live our lives and we should be able to live the life we were given freely.
      Oh, and congratulations on being pregnant with your 10th child. Aren’t you glad you were able to choose to be a parent and didn’t have anyone telling you that you couldn’t be a parent or that someone didn’t force you to be a parent when you didn’t want to? Ahh, sweet freedom.

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