Pro-choice, pro-woman...pro-life

Today is the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Being rather less than 34, I have grown up in a world that is, at least in part, a consequence of this decision. This blog is why I--a young Christian girl raised in a fairly conservative Baptist church--am firmly pro-choice.

I believe that being pro-choice does not mean being anti-life. Being pro-choice does not even mean being particularly pro-abortion; I think that having an abortion is a huge decision, one that shouldn't be taken lightly, and in a lot of cases it's probably morally wrong according to the creed of my faith. All life is sacred, life is a gift. We don't have the right to say whose life is worth more--the life of a baby, of a sweet old grandma, of a rapist or a killer or a terrorist.

Or the life of a woman who doesn't want to be pregnant anymore.

You see, a woman who is desperate, who knows she just can't have a child right now--if she can't get a safe, legal abortion performed by a trained doctor--if abortion isn't legal--what is she going to do? Is she going to shrug her shoulders and say "oh well, guess I'll have the damn baby anyway"?

If this woman does what I think she would (and, I must admit, what I damn well might do in her situation) and goes somewhere else, finds another method--she could get hurt, she could get sick, she could die. And what makes her life worth less than that of the child inside her?

I once brought up this imagined scenario in a Bible study I was in. The discussion as I remember went something as follows (excuse the Xian jargon):

Seraph: So what if this woman, this desperate woman who truly believes she has no other choice, goes and gets an illegal abortion--some coat-hanger deal in a back alley somewhere? And suppose she gets some terrible infection and dies? And suppose this woman isn't a Believer, and when she dies she does indeed go to hell? And what if, if she'd been able to have a safe, legal abortion, she could have lived long enough for someone to share Christ with her? Are you going to send a woman who doesn't know Christ to hell for one mistake?

Other Girl*: Well that would be her problem, not mine--she deserves to go to hell!

I nearly threw up, or got up and left. At any rate, my jaw hit the floor. Way to be loving and Christlike, Other Girl. Aren't we all deserving of hell? Isn't that kind of a big point in our faith--we don't deserve God's love, but he gives it to us anyway? Isn't every time you look at someone (like our hypothetical woman) with hatred in your heart--isn't that murder in the eyes of our Savior? Do you really think you'd never, ever consider having an abortion, you fucking hypocrite?

To sum up (oh no, I'm going into school-essay mode) I'm pro-choice. I'm pro-anything that helps women get by in a world that often seems to hate us. I'm pro-life--even the life of an evil evil floozy who wants to kill her innocent unborn child. Ha.

I've never had to live in a world where the option to abort a pregnancy, safely and humanely, hasn't been there, if I need it. And I hope I never have to.

*name changed to protect the aggravating.