It's Not My Decision

BY ERIC SMITH

In my opinion to be Pro Choice is not to be pro abortion. Rather to be Pro Choice is to recognize that only a woman knows what it is to bring a child to term and therefore whether or not to abort that child should ultimately be the sole choice of that woman because she knows the physical and physiological workings of of her own body far better than any man possibly could. Abortion is far more than just a moral issue for in deciding whether or not a fetus should be brought to full term a woman must determine whether or not that future human being will be better served by being allowed to enter this world or being denied that entry. 

In a perfect world which is free of poverty and neglect; where all children who enter this world are at least guaranteed adequate health care, food to eat, and equal opportunities in acquiring decent education & job training so they could be properly cared for when sick, and ultimately decent enough living so as to enjoy a decent quality of life, I could see a case for abortion being banned. 

Yet society has yet to make this commitment and those very same lawmakers who are now beating the drumbeat loudest for the overturning of Roe versus Wade are at the same time voting to cut over two billion dollars from food stamps; money which will be the difference between those poor children they would force into this world through a ban on abortion, from eating or starving. These same Pro Life individuals are trying to overturn Obamacare which is ensuring that more and more of our children will not perish from deprivation & disease. 

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If one is opposed to abortion on a moral basis then fine, that is your right, but understand that your moral opposition to abortion means absolutely nothing if that morality exists in a vacuum; if you are indifferent and opposed to society's role in helping to care for those new lives it would force into the world. One can't have it both ways. One can't say in the same breath that they are Pro Life in regards to the unborn yet Anti Life in regards to the living. It doesn't work that way. The life of a child, unborn or born, is not a pawn in our partisan game of chess and therefore those who would exploit these lives for political gain are among the lowest of the low.

If anything, abortion is not so much an indictment of those women who choose to have them and doctors who perform them as it is of those very public officials who would have it banned for they are the ones who perpetuate a society who's priorities are so uncaring and so skewed for the white and the privileged that far too many women tragically conclude that the life they are carrying will be far better served by not being allowed to enter the world rather than enter it. 

I'm no fan of abortion. In fact I hate it but I can understand many women who say that it is ultimately an act of mercy; that it is meant to spare a child the trauma of suffering from horrific diseases, deprivation, hunger, and poverty. I'm not a woman but at least I understand that much and therefore not being a woman, I will always defer such a choice to the woman because I know she understands the situation far better than I do and I will forever defend a woman's right to make such a choice because by my being a man I know that I am ultimately unqualified to make such a profound and life altering choice for her.