pro-choice vs anti-choice

At a time when abortion and rape is being discussed heavily on TV news stations, you would think someone would say something of some substance.  The best comment I have heard is “rape is rape.”  Yes, rape is rape.  Rape is rape whether it is ‘forcible’ or whether it occurs when the woman, OR MAN, is under some sort of sedative or date rape drug.  Rape is rape.  It marks the victim, and that victim will NEVER forget the traumatic experience of being violated in such a way.  But what happens when you add a child into that equation?  Sen. Akin and whoever else wants to say that pregnancy cannot occur from rape can pick up a book or go and speak to rape survivors and find out very quickly it can happen.  Just because every rape does not result in pregnancy does not mean it doesn’t happen.  So for a woman who was not only raped but did get pregnant, how is she supposed to be okay with bringing that man’s child into this world?  How in the world do you think she could look at that child daily?  Not only that, but is she to be a single mother – and how is she supposed to be able to request child support if she does not know who the attacker was?  Well, let me help all of you out there – keep abortion legal for rape and incest victims.  Why are you going to punish the victim by making them carry a child to term that they don’t want, that they cannot fully take care of, and that they cannot even look in the face?  If a woman feels that an abortion is the best thing to do in this situation, who is Senator Todd Akin to tell her she is wrong?  Along the same lines, who is anyone to tell a woman that an abortion is not the right thing to do? 

I heard a comment the other day that frankly pissed me off.  There was a man on some news station that said something along the line about “pro-abortionist” and that they were going to start chanting about it again, or something.  But the word stuck out to me like a sore thumb.  First off, I would say that I don’t know anyone who would consider themselves pro-abortion.  Granted, I think science’s development of safer abortions and the ability to have them is a great thing – but I would never say I was pro-abortion.  (And if that is the name ‘pro-choicers’ are going to be called then “pro-life” no longer exists; you will be known as ‘anti-choice.’  Because that is what this debate is about.)  The argument around abortion should be about having the choice to take the fetus out of your body before the pregnancy term is over.  No woman is going to have an abortion without all of the information, and no legitimate doctor will perform one without giving all of the necessary information.  The religious argument surrounding abortion should not even be discussed at a public level – that is a private decision.  If you think that having an abortion is murder, don’t have one.  Don’t tell me that I cannot make my own decision to have an abortion and don’t tell me I’m going to be religiously punished for it.  The religious debate needs to be taken out of abortion and the political scene altogether.  The right to an abortion has everything to do with choice, and any person who says that a woman cannot have an abortion is taking away her right to choose what she wants to do with something that is in her body.

Long story short, abortion is about choice.  It is about a decision a woman makes that has to do with her body.  The decision is made after consultations with her doctor and typically her boyfriend/husband/family/friends.  The last time I checked, a woman does not consult the government or her state senator to get an abortion – she asks those who would be affected by the decision.  So, Todd Akin and the rest of the GOP who thinks it is okay to speak so ignorantly about rape and abortion need to stop thinking that they can control women and their ability to make decisions for themselves.  Women are capable of putting together facts and statistics and considering their life to make a smart decision regarding abortion.  Abortion should not even be written into the law books – it should be about a decision made between a woman and her doctor – the federal government should have NO jurisdiction in a private hospital room.

I’m done.