Weather: Cold
Phenology: There's finally snow on the ground.
Today is the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and given the recent backlash against abortion rights, it's more important than ever to remember what we're fighting for. Here are some of the many reasons I'm pro-choice:
Abortion has always existed in human society, and it always will.
There will always be women with unwanted pregnancies who are desperate enough to seek abortion even when it is illegal, despite the danger of back-alley abortions. It is simply impossible to eliminate abortion. In fact, it is impossible to even reduce it greatly—it will always exist in great numbers; that is simply fact. And because of this, we must keep abortion legal to protect women's lives.
Making abortion illegal would not reduce the number of abortions.
Statistics show that the number of abortions usually goes down when abortion is legalized—due to the better reproductive education that goes along with it—and abortion exists in much higher rates in countries where it remains illegal or highly restricted.
The best way to reduce the number of abortions is to provide family planning education.
Teaching people, and especially women, about contraception and family planning has been proven time and time again to be far and above the most effective way to reduce unwanted pregnancies, and reducing unwanted pregnancies is much more effective at reducing abortions than either illegalizing abortion or trying to convince women to keep the babies. If you truly care about reducing abortion, educating people to practice safe sex is the only effective strategy.
Abortion is an extension of the natural processes of the body.
Miscarriage—also known as spontaneous abortion—happens when the body can't handle the pregnancy for physical reasons. Abortion happens when the woman can't handle the pregnancy for external reasons. Furthermore, if you believe the (unproven) theory that contraception can prevent implantation, you should know that breastfeeding has the exact same risk. Thus, if that theory is in fact true, the body itself is performing an "abortion" not for physical reasons but because evolution is wise enough to realize the inconvenience of having children too close together. (Though it should be noted, it is technically not abortion because pregancy by definition doesn't begin until implantation has taken place.)
It is not necessary to protect every potential human being.
Given the right circumstances, a fetus can develop into a fully-formed human. But then, given the right circumstances, the same is true of every egg or sperm. Given an egg and a womb, a sperm can become a full human being. It's absurd and unecessary to try to save every potential human being, especially when there are already so many people on this planet who need food and so many children without families. If you truly believe in the sanctity of human life, you should be doing what you can to help those who already here.
Abortion is not murder.
To me, the definition of murder is to kill something unecessarily. Killing for self-defense is not murder. Killing for food is not murder. And abortion is necessary—to protect women's health and lives, to prevent unwanted children from being born into an unfortunate situation, and above all to give women the freedom of choice to decide for themselves what's best for their own lives and their own bodies.
The religious beliefs of some should not be imposed on society as a whole.
Most abortion opponents do so for religious reasons and not for practical reasons. Laws in our society should be decided on the basis of what is necessary for the functioning of society—laws against stealing or murder—not on simple morality. That's why there are no laws against adultery; certainly everyone agrees that it's wrong, but we all know that having laws against it would be far more damaging to society. This is not a theocracy and we must base our laws on what works best for our society, not on what one religion's text supposedly says.
Even if you believe abortion is wrong, it is easy to see that it is far more practical—and in the end, preferable—to give women the right to choose.
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Feministing has a good list of blogs that blogged for choice today. Especially check out the post at Feministe.
