Pro-Life VS Pro-Choice

[* 11 May 2020 *]

In an ideal world, I’m pro-life. But we aren’t in an ideal world; mistakes happen, rape happens, health complications happen, so that makes me pro-choice.

It’s a difficult choice to make, but it should be the mother’s choice. Who am I to tell someone how they should handle something I will never experience? Men can and should participate in the decision, but the moment they force one is the moment they cross the line. A woman’s body is her own. Agency over one’s own body is a natural right.

A common argument against abortion is adoption. Sure that’s an option, but that doesn’t take into account the problems associated with the actual pregnancy. Whether or not there are severe health complications, pregnancy puts incredible strain and pain on one’s body. Eventually it will affect your daily life and work.

My problem with many pro-life people I’ve encountered is that they aren’t pro-life, they’re pro-birth. Once the baby is born, they stop caring about its safety and wellbeing. They don’t care whether the mother can support or care for the baby, if she’s able to continue her work, or whether the father is in the picture at all. They force people into something they’re not ready for, and leave the mother and baby to struggle and suffer while they pat themselves on the back for “saving a life.” If you ask me, forcing people to give birth doesn’t save a life, but often times destroys the mother’s life and sets the baby up for failure, unnecessary hardship, and misery.

And what’s even worse is when they have the audacity to look down on a struggling young mother. Without knowing her story, they decide to see a tramp and a sinner, rather than an unfortunate girl put in an impossible situation. It doesn’t make sense. Didn’t she do what they wanted? Shouldn’t she be praised for keeping a baby even though it would have been easier to abort it?

And I’m not saying that everyone who is pro-life is bad. I understand the want to preserve life. We may disagree on when life starts, but not on the sanctity of life once it does. But growing up in a Christian community exposed me to many fake “Christians” and “pro-life advocates” who soaked in their own self-righteous hypocrisy.

7 June 2024