In the last 24 hours, while you perused inflammatory Facebook posts, a child went to bed hungry. An elderly nursing home resident was mistreated. A woman was raped. A man assaulted his wife. Plenty of intoxicated people got behind the wheel of a car. Someone abused and tortured an animal for the sheer pleasure of it.
You get the picture.
Passions have certainly run high lately with the release of super-top-secret-shocking Planned Parenthood videos. Videos that (gasp) have outraged the populace into screeching their battle cry of "Save The Babies!".
I'm not even going to get into the obvious flaws in these videos, such as taking into consideration the source, editing, or the agenda behind them. It is fruitless when trying to rationalize with those whose convictions have no room for the grey areas of reality.
I used to be a black and white thinker. I stubbornly had no room for the grey. And then, through the debating groups that brought me my closest and dearest friends, I started to view and understand the world through other people's eyes. Vastly different viewpoints, some of which seemed to go against everything I believed, opened up the world for me. I was forced into fact checking, researching, and hearing first hand accounts of people who had experienced that which I had formed an opinion about. Suddenly, the world stopped being black and white.
Should we be shocked the Planned Parenthood videos have been released just as an election season cycle begins to warm up? Absolutely not. Because this is not actually video that is only about whether an organization has broken the laws regarding fetal tissue donation. It is much more than that, and every outcry and denunciation of Planned Parenthood proves that.
It is about abortion.
One of the greyest topics out there.
You would think labels of "pro-life" and "pro-choice" could actually be pretty black and white, but they are not. Not even close.
So, putting aside the laws clearly written in regards to fetal tissue donation, let's discuss what is really going on here. This isn't about whether someone has broken the law. This isn't about the choice of words by an employee in a large organization. This isn't about medical research that has benefited millions. This is about babies.
Save the babies. What is that, anyway? Is it really about the babies? Or is it about birth? Because I don't really see people giving much of a shit beyond the exit point.
But, I'm jumping ahead of myself. Let's start with pregnancy.
Our law of the land says I have the right to decide what to do with my pregnancy. Fantastic. I can pop out 19 kids and throw them on national television. I can undergo fertility treatments and end up with six of those suckers at once, or select to only have three, two, or one. I can choose any number of methods of preventing even one of those little boogers from popping out of me like an alien life form. I can choose to not prevent anything, leave it all in the hands of a deity, and have a 40 week surprise party thrown for me.
It's pretty fabulous knowing I have all these choices. These choices to have, or not have. The choices to limit, or not limit. I'm thankful the laws of our land can not tell me how, when, the number of times, or where I reproduce. And with those laws, brings another. The choice to terminate.
Yes, it would be a wonderful world indeed if the need to terminate a pregnancy did not exist. But, regardless of the laws of our great land, that situation will always arise. Whether it's through the horrors of abuse or rape, the heartbreak of medical issues, or something as simple as the wrong time, there will always be women facing the reality of not wanting to give birth to a child. We could try to regulate that with laws, but it would be to no avail. And enter, our right, guaranteed to each and every womb carrier, termination.
Forcing a woman to carry an unwanted pregnancy is not only a ludicrous statement, it's a dangerous one. First of all, it would promote women trying to self-abort, in unsafe, unsanitary conditions. The mental health ramifications are astronomical, in a country that is already horribly failing in their mental health services. How far would it be taken? Would women find all of their privacy and freedoms taken away just so the powers that be can rest assured that she is incubating as they see fit? Where does it stop? If we legislate pregnancy (and let's be honest, outlawing abortion is exactly that) where does the legislating stop? Will we allow our government to start choosing the types of birth control they deem appropriate? Will the choices of preventing a pregnancy be limited to less effective ways? Also, can ALL pregnancies be dictated and outlined then? Will we allow a government state that tells us how to treat each pregnancy, dictate nutritional guidelines, medical care, and exactly how to give birth? Is THAT the goal when saying we need to outlaw abortion? It's not a far reach. Once you allow our great nation to dictate one choice, others can (and do) easily follow.
The second grey area of abortion, the really BIG one, is what happens if we force women to give birth to unwanted children. Obviously, a woman who did not want the pregnancy in the first place is going to have very little chance of a change of heart. I know I certainly don't want that type of parent raising a child. We can cry out for all those desperate parents out there wanting a baby and looking to adopt. And don't get me wrong, adoption is a fantastic option for people unable to have children. An expensive and lengthy option. An option couples have to qualify for, not only financially, but emotionally, and proving they are deemed healthy enough to adopt and raise a child. And let's be honest about people's intentions here...will children born of a different race, or born with birth defects or health issues be adopted quite so easily, were all these restrictions to be taken away? Some yes. All? No.
That leaves the foster care system. An already overtaxed and failing system. Not exactly the life of prosperity I would hope for children to have. Not when it's already filled with children coming from neglectful or abusive homes. If the system is suddenly flooded with infants, in all reality, what hope is there for the older children, many with emotional and behavioral problems? It's a terrible analogy, but fitting, when I just point out exactly what happens at an animal shelter. Everyone oohs and aaahs over the babies...the kittens and puppies are adopted out first. Then, you see the designer doggies and purebreds finding homes. It can make you cringe to think of it that way, but it is a harsh reality of the world.
The third grey area of abortion is the almighty dollar. Putting aside the mental health services we would need to expand on, let's look at social services. Forcing children to be born into poverty is going to make each and every one of us need to open up our already stretched wallets even more. Instead of the battle cries to limit and reduce our welfare system, we will need to be prepared to expand it even more. Raising a child is not cheap, and if we are forcing every pregnant woman out there to carry her pregnancy to term, we have to be willing to financially support every single poverty level woman and child through pregnancy and the following 18 years. This not only includes food and shelter, but basic medical needs, education, and any services needed because of disability.
I have yet, in 43 years of living on this earth, heard any rational solution to these grey areas. Especially in today's political climate. Especially a solution that does not take away the control each and every one of us has over our own being.
And that's what it boils down to in the labels of "pro-life" and "pro-choice". Pro-life is really nothing more than pro-birth. We can ignore the ramifications of forced pregnancy and forced birth and not offer up any solutions in regards to the mental and financial problems it would create, but that's not really a concern for ALL life. Only the perceived life of one, and only for a short amount of time. The long term is not considered, nor does it appear to be a concern.
Quite frankly, I believe we are ALL pro-choice. Just as one woman wants the choices granted to her to NOT become pregnant, NOT carry a pregnancy, another woman wants to exercise her right to get pregnant. As many times as she would like. She would like to have the choices to carry her pregnancy on her own terms, under her own medical decisions, and birth in the way she is most comfortable choosing. She would also like to raise that child in the way she chooses. Health choices, educational choices, financial choices.
Choices are a grand thing. And in the meantime, as we rant and rave about these choices that all women have regarding their ability to reproduce, we can forget and ignore the atrocities faced by the millions of people already right here, right now. I choose not to.
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