The right to choose

On a car ride to Tahoe, when I was around thirteen-years-old, my mom read me an article about a doctor who lost his job because he performed an emergency abortion for a woman whose life depended on the procedure. The woman was not upset as it had saved her life and the likelihood of her child's survival was minimal, but thousands of others were outraged that the doctor had murdered this child. The issue of abortion has resurfaced in the media again and again. It has been tackled from religious perspectives, medical perspectives, economic perspectives,... The decision of the availability of this option for women lies in the hands of male dominated legislative bodies, but is it not the mother's decision? "A Sep. 2005 survey in the peer-reviewed Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health asking women why they had an abortion found that 73% of respondents said they could not afford to have a baby, and 38% said giving birth would interfere with their education and career goals."* No one understands the situation that a woman is in and the life that she can offer her child better than herself. So why should a group of men who have never had to face the high mortality rates of giving birth, the possibility of raising one's rapist's child, the heartbreak of dropping out of high school and not being the first woman in one's family to attend college, and the fear of bringing a child into a life in a rundown apartment, with an abusive husband, and surviving off of food stamps make the decisions about a woman's body. If one does not believe in helping the child grow up by supporting affordable healthcare, education, housing, and food for all, then is one really pro-life? It is true that the decision to abort a child should not be taken lightly, but it should be an option for everyone. If a woman believes that aborting her child is against her religion, then she should be able to continue her pregnancy. If a woman feels unprepared in any way to give a life to the fetus, then she should be able to terminate her pregnancy. In a world churning with diverse cultures and belief systems, we must be respectful of each other by allowing freedom of choice while preventing chaos through universal agreements.

*http://abortion.procon.org