With the oncoming gubernatorial elections coming up, the inevitable issue also makes an appearance: abortion. I hate this topic, but not because I�m ambivalent about it. I hate the topic because of the stupidity it breeds. I hate it because people on either side refuse to reach some kind of common ground.
I�ve had numerous discussions about it, mostly with the anti-choice people screaming murder, which to me, makes no sense.
I read somewhere that the idea of human life as an organism begins at conception. That�s the scientific community�s take on life. Most anti-choice individuals use that concession as some kind of spear in the debate.
There is a hole with that argument though; science concedes that life begins at that point, but not that there is a �soul� which is the basis of most religious arguments.
I don�t condone the idea of taking a life that most were irresponsible to prevent from happening anyway. However, I believe that as a woman, only *I* have the right to make a decision about my body. I don�t need an entire country telling me that I need to go through a highly taxing biological process because I�m not allowed to do anything to my own body. It�s like telling a cancer patient that he or she cannot have the drugs that he or she needs to survive because it clashes with some kind of religious dogma.
No, I don�t think it�s right that some man would have the say in what he would never have an experience in. Maybe that�s feminist, but so what? It should be.
Most anti-choice individuals have no response to the rape/incest issue. Most that I�ve run into say that it�s ok in that case.
Isn�t murder murder?
I�ve also run into a few that say that RU-486 is also murder because �life begins at conception�. I�m sorry, but I would hardly call a single cell or maybe sixteen total a human being. If there is a problem with killing a single cell, then don�t ever exfoliate your skin. You are �murdering� millions of your cells.
Most recently, I stumbled across a poor, misguided individual who said that brainwaves can be detected within a week of conception. I�m sorry, check your facts again. A woman cannot even tell that she is pregnant within a week of conception, let alone major organ systems form. Organs don�t even form until the third month.
If you want to debate me on this subject, please feel free, but I�ve heard every single argument. It�s so ironic that pro-lifers care so much about a baby being born, but could really give a damn after that. What happens to those poor unwanted children? Are they destined to a life of unfulfillment, abuse, and maybe even death?
That�s murder.
That being said�.I always was for abortion because I believed that the option should be available to all and that a woman�s right to her own body was paramount�especially to someone who wasn�t even born yet. Would I get an abortion if I had found myself in a very unfortunate (and frankly irresponsible except of course in the cases of rape/incest) situation? I always used to say �yes� but simply because that I knew that I could never care for the child and I believed that my career and future should come before children.
I still agree with that, but I�ve found that I�m on the brink of adulthood. Would I still consider the option of abortion as long as it was offered to me? Yes. Would I go through with it? I�m not so sure anymore.
Don�t get me wrong, I�m not asking to have a child. In fact, I�ve already been through this after all of my strange dreams. However, I feel so �adult� at this point in my life that I could conceivably take care of a child. I don�t particularly want to at this point in my life, but I could.
Realizing this has made me question abortion. It has been a thorn in the side of this country�s politics for thirty years now. It causes many heated debates in which the time could be better spent finding ways of solving the world�s problems�not deciding who is more �moral.�
It seems that very soon, women could be losing the ability to choose, so this is a very real issue. I honestly believe that women (and men) should be better educated so that unfortunate pregnancies don�t occur. I also believe that if a woman can take care of a child, maybe she should go through with the pregnancy. On the other side of that pendulum, however, I do believe that the option should be available to people who cannot possibly take care of children, for the child�s sake.
I know, I know, there is always adoption, but what about those mother�s whose lives are in danger by the pregnancy?
[sigh] It will never end, will it?
