Pro-Life: Not About Life At All.

I don’t normally post on charged topics around here, but the more I read about the murder of Dr. George Tiller, the more I feel the need to speak up. This post was particularly heartbreaking.

It probably seems unfitting that I stake my claim as being pro-choice. When faced with that decision, didn’t I “choose life” after all?

I know without a doubt in my mind that I made the right decision, but being a mother is the hardest job I’ve ever had in my life. Knowing what I’ve been through — knowing the questions I had to ask myself and the things I had to be ready to give up and the place I needed to get to in my life and the sacrifices I continue to make on a daily basis– I honestly cannot imagine that any woman who has ever chosen otherwise would say it was an easy thing for them to do. A woman may see those two pink lines and instantly know she’s not ready and that she can’t do this, but it’s never as simple as others make it out to be. You’ll never know what it’s like and you’ll never be able to rightfully speak about it until you’ve been there.

I know a small number of women who have had to undergo late-term abortion procedures out of necessity. These were very much planned pregnancies, and these women wanted nothing more than to meet their babies and hold them in their arms. One woman chose the procedure because, really, it was the most humane thing for her to do — like the poster in the linked article, her baby tested positive for fetal abnormalities and would have lived a very painful few months if he survived the birth at all. In other instances, the late-term abortion is what saved the mother’s life and the lives of her future children. Considering the truth of the circumstances under which these procedures are done, Dr. Tiller and other doctors like him are nothing short of heroes.

One consistent thing I’ve noticed among anti-choicers is that most of them are people who have never been put in a position to have to make that choice, and many of them would likely never be in that position. The loudest ones (Bill O’Reilly and the like) will never actually know what it’s like to have a second heart beating in their body, they’ll never know the conflict between joy and burden. Anti-choicers have successfully taken the humanity out of the abortion issue, as they must to get people on their side.

But let’s get one thing clear — being “pro-life” has absolutely nothing to do with compassion or saving the lives of babies or getting people to take responsibility for their actions. Instead, being “pro-life” has everything to do with ignorance and control. Being “pro-life” has everything to do with making judgments on what they know nothing about. If being “pro-life” were actually about being pro-life, then trustworthy health care, safe procedures, and birth control would be more accessible for all women, and the murder of a doctor would never have happened.

Tags: abortion, motherhood, politics, pregnancy