Twenty-three years ago, a woman dealt with the decision of whether or not to have an abortion. She resided in a new country and was already a mother of an 18 month old child. She found herself alone, employed in a menial occupation, and had barely enough money to survive. Prompted by people in her community to abort the Child, the proposal began to make perfect sense. After all, it appeared to be foolish and irrational to add self-additional responsibilities and further hardships to her life. Abortion appeared to be the perfect solution to her problem. Many people who are reading this would agree…except for me.
As a young college student who is passionate about her stance against abortion, I know that I am considered a minority next to today’s youth culture. However I believe support in abortion is changing as more and more young women are beginning to understand the various ramifications and consequences associated with the procedure. Unfortunately, women like me, or “pro-lifers,” are sometimes put into an anti-woman, prude or religious fanatic category. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, we are just the opposite. Our decision to be pro life hinges on many factors based on scientific research, love of oneself and of course love for the Child within the womb.
The argument always utilized by pro-choice advocates remain the same: “It is a woman’s body, she has the right to choose what she wants to do with it” “No woman should be forced to have an unwanted Pregnancy” (maybe the pregnancy is unwanted but is the baby unwanted?) or “It’s just not the right time!” Yet questions still remain which every woman should ask themselves. What is abortion? What is the end to that abortion? And what will that abortion mean to me physically and mentally later in my life? No matter what rationale is used to support abortion, the fact remains and the reality of the situation unavoidable, it is the termination of a human life. Abortion is the destruction of one’s own flesh and blood intimately conceived by a man and a woman.
Pro-choice activists often accuse pro-life positions as being degrading to women, but how is abortion not degrading women? Abortion often leaves women shameful, guilty and resentful. Abortion cannot eradicate a mistake. It often compounds it with long term psychological and often physical problems. Some may argue that pro-life men have no right to tell a woman what she can or cannot do with her body because they cannot experience pregnancy or labor, but on the other hand, pro-choice men will never have to experience the long term pain and sadness women experience which is associated with abortion.
You might be wondering what happened to the pregnant woman I wrote about in the beginning of this commentary. She sought out a pregnancy crisis center and decided to give birth to her Child. On January 17th 1991, she gave birth to a baby, a baby girl…… and that baby girl is ME! I now feel a strong obligation to be a voice for the unborn, considering I too could have be aborted but was spared and placed for adoption. I LOVE LIFE! I am grateful everyday to this woman who said yes to life. I am grateful to my parents who love me unconditionally and I am grateful to be alive. Once someone contemplated termination of a pregnancy which would have been the termination of my life. Did I have a right to live? Well just ask all the people who love me and whose life I have positively affected. Plus there are other options to abortion–like adoption! I do not believe in abortion because I support the rights of unborn men and women to LIVE.