A few weeks ago, what started as the Women’s March on Washington turned into people all over the world marching in support of women’s rights. Just a week later, there was the annual March for Life, where people protested abortion. Due to the political mess that our country has been going through over the past few months, there has been a lot of confusion about what these protests actually mean.
First of all, there are quite a few people who think that supporting women’s rights is the same thing as believing women are superior to men. These are the people who have the wrong definition of feminism. According to Merriam-Webster, feminism is “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.” Those who participated in the Women’s March on Washington marched for just that: equality.
Also high on the list of misconceptions is one of the most controversial topics when it comes to women’s rights: Abortion. It’s also a topic that’s often extremely misunderstood. That being said, the march had a lot to do with abortion as well. The people who marched for women’s rights were criticized for believing that women should have the right to decide what happens to their own bodies. What some people who are pro-life have a hard time understanding is that we are pro-choice, not pro-abortion.
If you believe that a baby’s life starts immediately after conception and you’re ready to have a child, those of us who are pro-choice support your decision to not have an abortion.
If you believe that cells in the early stages of pregnancy are not yet a human life and you are not physically or emotionally ready to give birth, those of us who are pro-choice support your decision to have an abortion.
Whatever your decision is, we support a woman’s right to choose what happens to her body. We are NOT pro-abortion in any way. It should be up to each individual woman because everyone has a different situation. To be pro-choice means to believe that women should be able to discuss their options with a doctor in order to find out what’s best for them. We don’t need a predominantly male legislature to make that decision for us. Life can get pretty complicated, and those men don’t know what each and every one of us goes through.
So before you attack those in support of women’s rights, remember, if it weren’t for women marching, protesting, and standing up for what they believe in, we wouldn’t have nearly as much (like the right to vote, work or simply be our own person) as we do today.