Hello out there in blog-o-sphere land,
So, I recently got into a Facebook fight about a cause that is something that makes me a bit angry. I am 32. I have one child. I am also pro-choice.
I am pro-choice because what another woman chooses to do with her body is none of my business. However, I have an unpopular opinion(apparently)in the pro-choice community. The current stipulations in place allow for abortion, in most places, up to 20 weeks. The specific item that sparked me to voice my apparently unpopular opinion was a demographic from NARAL. It is a poster that says something to the effect of abortion being "under fire" because some states are banning abortions beyond that point. So, if we look at it this way, 20 weeks is 5 months. Beyond 20 weeks, at 24 weeks to be precise, a fetus could support itself outside of its mother's womb. So, beyond 20 weeks, when does it become an issue of a "woman's right to choose" and murder? Now, I know that anyone that is pro-life would argue that it is always murder. I respect that opinion, but, I do not share it. My pro-choice opinion is that beyond 20 weeks, abortion should no longer be an option, unless there is a risk to the mother, the fetus, or both. My pro-choice opinion is that abortion should not be used as birth control, because it isn't. When I was 19, I had an abortion at just under 13 weeks. I left that office with a year's supply of birth control. A. Year.
Now, here's the really unpopular part. While I agree that there are extenuating circumstances that would lead to a woman being 5 months pregnant and not knowing, but, I feel that is extremely rare. Yes, there are women that don't have regular periods. There are women that receive false negatives. There are rapes. There are all sorts of things that could happen to result in a "crisis pregnancy." Stupidity and denial are not examples of a "crisis pregnancy." If you are a healthy, sexually active woman, you have to have a little accountability for your actions. If you are a female, in the clinic, for the second time in a year to have an abortion, YOU aren't being responsible. I still agree that it isn't any of my business, but, it should be YOUR business. I have had an abortion, and it is not something that I would ever want to do again. This was YEARS before I had a healthy son. It was almost 10 years before I CHOSE to have a child. Being sexually active, in most cases, is a choice. Choosing NOT to use birth control is also a choice. If you continually have unprotected sex and use abortion as your birth control, that isn't what should be happening. However, that is just my opinion. We, as a nation, are going backwards in the sex education world. We are NOT teaching kids things that they should know, as a whole. Not just our education system, but, we as parents are not taking the responsibility we should to educate our children about sex and being responsible.
So....there it is. In a nutshell. I am pro-choice. However, I think there HAS to be a line. If the fetus you are aborting could support itself outside of your womb, it becomes something else. I would never vote for legislation against abortion because, at the end of the day, it really isn't my business. However, I think we, as pro-choicers, need to be honest with ourselves. At what point does abortion stop being an option? For me, that point is 24 weeks. Anything beyond 24 weeks is partial-birth abortion and that shouldn't be legal. That IS destroying a life that could exist outside YOUR body. It stops being JUST YOUR CHOICE. What we really need is not abortion reform, but, sexual education reform. I do realize that there are special circumstances. I am not including "crisis" scenarios in my opinion. If the mother, the fetus, or both are at risk, then that would be a special circumstance. General abortion should stop at 20 weeks. All insurance carriers SHOULD cover birth control. PERIOD. Banning abortions won't stop abortion. We need to educate everyone. We, as a society, need accountability. I am a woman. I am a mother. I am pro-choice. Abortion should not be something that is done illegally in back-alleys. It should not, however, be used as a form of birth control. If abortion was meant to be birth control, it wouldn't have another name. I don't think we should be teaching or preaching abstinence, because in most people, that isn't going to happen. We should be teaching safer practices. We should be educating our youth about birth control and responsible sexual practices. It isn't my business, but it should be yours. It IS your choice. It IS your body. Be. responsible.
That's my two cents.
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