The Case for Choice
Oct. 29th, 2007 07:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leticiaI am pro-life. Abortion is something I am not very comfortable with. I believe it to be a social ill, by and large.
There are very few situations in which I suspect that I personally would be willing to get an abortion.
However, laws making abortion illegal are a horrible idea. I, as much as any (honest) anti-choice activist, would like to see abortion 'cured'. It's not that abortion is itself a disease (so don't look at me like that). Rather, abortion is a symptom of a deeper illness.
(I specify honest above; they're the ones who actually care about the health of children. They're the ones who are angry at Bush for not signing SCHIP --speaking of, have you heard that he's not happy with the way the 'compromise' bill is shaping up either-- and who think for some strange reason the (citizen) children of illegal immigrants deserve as much health care as the rest of our children, and maybe even whatever children immigrants have illegally brought with them. They seem to be remarkably few and quiet these days, perhaps because, as with me, an honest examination of the facts forces one to recognize that the pro-life stance /is/ the pro-choice one.)
Abortion is, frankly, much safer for women than pregnancy. A full term pregnancy is harder, and has a tendency to come when you're not prepared. It puts the body under the strain of pregnancy longer. And yes, it's a strain. Why do you think women are supposed to eat so much calcium? It's because when we're pregnant, the matter is being leeched out of our bones to build our babies. And postpartum depression is not, no matter how much the anti-choice folks plug their ears and hum, somehow magically non-existent.
In fact, studies done by the World Health Organization show that in nations where abortion is illegal, abortion rates are similar to in nations where abortion is not.
Laws against abortion don't save babies. But they do kill women.
The same studies show that women are far more likely to have an unsafe abortion where abortions are illegal. And these abortions cause 13% of pregnancy related deaths. 13%, people. And that's not counting the women who merely have health problems resulting - including continued infertility!
Ahha, say the anti-choice activists. We told you Abortion Was Bad For Women. No, you dolts. Laws making abortion illegal are bad for women. A safe abortion in a medical clinic by a medical doctor is a trivial procedure with minimal after affects, especially early in term; when there are health complications, those involved in bearing to term would be far worse. Early in term, it's far less taxing on the woman's body than labor. Far less. Pregnancy - abortion aside - kills frightening amounts of women in many nations. Often those same nations where abortion is illegal, in third world 'religious' nations where women are both subjected to the abuse of men due to the patriarchy and scorned for becoming pregnant due to it. (And of course, late term abortions which more closely approach full labor are more likely to happen if you're shaming women or making it hard for them to find doctors.)
And this is where the anti-choice "Pro-Life" crowd shows their true colors.
Laws against abortion are not, despite their claims, done out of any kind of respect for life.
They don't stop abortions.
They kill women.
They're about punishing women. They're about keeping women under the thumb of men. A woman with a child or a pregnant woman is more likely to be dependent on a male breadwinner because she has less freedom and options to find her own income, among other elements of control. It's harder to run from abuse; you have more to carry. Children are a leash on women where men don't carry their fair share, and let's be honest: Men only carry their fair share when they choose to; women will always be left to carry the whatever they don't. (And when the women do the leaving, everyone sees it as TERRIBLY unfair and the man as incredibly noble, where many men provide about the same level of neglect and are considered model family men.)
And for these reasons, I am against laws against abortion. I am for the choice of women. And I am for working as a society to find ways to eliminate the need for abortions. (Hint: Education, birth control, education, birth control. Fund pre-natal - and post-natal care. Health care and basic necessities for babies. Better education and birth control. Government funded child care. Support structures for single mothers. Encouraging fathers to be willing to raise the child. Education and birth control!)
There are very few situations in which I suspect that I personally would be willing to get an abortion.
However, laws making abortion illegal are a horrible idea. I, as much as any (honest) anti-choice activist, would like to see abortion 'cured'. It's not that abortion is itself a disease (so don't look at me like that). Rather, abortion is a symptom of a deeper illness.
(I specify honest above; they're the ones who actually care about the health of children. They're the ones who are angry at Bush for not signing SCHIP --speaking of, have you heard that he's not happy with the way the 'compromise' bill is shaping up either-- and who think for some strange reason the (citizen) children of illegal immigrants deserve as much health care as the rest of our children, and maybe even whatever children immigrants have illegally brought with them. They seem to be remarkably few and quiet these days, perhaps because, as with me, an honest examination of the facts forces one to recognize that the pro-life stance /is/ the pro-choice one.)
Abortion is, frankly, much safer for women than pregnancy. A full term pregnancy is harder, and has a tendency to come when you're not prepared. It puts the body under the strain of pregnancy longer. And yes, it's a strain. Why do you think women are supposed to eat so much calcium? It's because when we're pregnant, the matter is being leeched out of our bones to build our babies. And postpartum depression is not, no matter how much the anti-choice folks plug their ears and hum, somehow magically non-existent.
In fact, studies done by the World Health Organization show that in nations where abortion is illegal, abortion rates are similar to in nations where abortion is not.
Laws against abortion don't save babies. But they do kill women.
The same studies show that women are far more likely to have an unsafe abortion where abortions are illegal. And these abortions cause 13% of pregnancy related deaths. 13%, people. And that's not counting the women who merely have health problems resulting - including continued infertility!
Ahha, say the anti-choice activists. We told you Abortion Was Bad For Women. No, you dolts. Laws making abortion illegal are bad for women. A safe abortion in a medical clinic by a medical doctor is a trivial procedure with minimal after affects, especially early in term; when there are health complications, those involved in bearing to term would be far worse. Early in term, it's far less taxing on the woman's body than labor. Far less. Pregnancy - abortion aside - kills frightening amounts of women in many nations. Often those same nations where abortion is illegal, in third world 'religious' nations where women are both subjected to the abuse of men due to the patriarchy and scorned for becoming pregnant due to it. (And of course, late term abortions which more closely approach full labor are more likely to happen if you're shaming women or making it hard for them to find doctors.)
And this is where the anti-choice "Pro-Life" crowd shows their true colors.
Laws against abortion are not, despite their claims, done out of any kind of respect for life.
They don't stop abortions.
They kill women.
They're about punishing women. They're about keeping women under the thumb of men. A woman with a child or a pregnant woman is more likely to be dependent on a male breadwinner because she has less freedom and options to find her own income, among other elements of control. It's harder to run from abuse; you have more to carry. Children are a leash on women where men don't carry their fair share, and let's be honest: Men only carry their fair share when they choose to; women will always be left to carry the whatever they don't. (And when the women do the leaving, everyone sees it as TERRIBLY unfair and the man as incredibly noble, where many men provide about the same level of neglect and are considered model family men.)
And for these reasons, I am against laws against abortion. I am for the choice of women. And I am for working as a society to find ways to eliminate the need for abortions. (Hint: Education, birth control, education, birth control. Fund pre-natal - and post-natal care. Health care and basic necessities for babies. Better education and birth control. Government funded child care. Support structures for single mothers. Encouraging fathers to be willing to raise the child. Education and birth control!)
