As Rachel Green said in Friends to the doctor who claimed
she was having “mild” Braxton Hicks, “No Uterus, no say!” That has become a
popular saying among myself when it comes to reproductive rights or pretty much
anything to do with the female reproductive system.
Abortion
is a huge issue in America, and congress apparently won’t shut up about it. We
have old men claiming females are murdering babies when in fact, they are
terminating a pregnancy. A baby is not equal to an unborn fetus. What is crazy
is that these lawmakers seem to care more about these unborn fetuses then a
child who is actually alive. They will fight to protect the fetus and keep a
woman pregnant, even one who cannot afford to take care of a child and know
that adoption will most likely end up with the baby being in foster care, and
who thinks her best option is terminating the pregnancy. The fight to protect
the fetus and then when the woman has to work two jobs to afford food and
shelter for the baby and sometimes needs government assistant, they want to
tell her she should not have had a child she couldn’t afford and then claiming
she is mooching off the government and is very lazy and she should have a
better job, one that she couldn’t get because she got pregnant at that early
age and couldn’t go to or finish college. Of course that is not all stories of
a woman who wants or gets an abortion and all single moms, but it seems to be a
very recurring theme. Since it is a very recurring theme, maybe the men who
keep trying to make it illegal for a woman to have an abortion should focus on
feeding the hungry children who are actually born.
I will
not say abortion is a totally black and white subject. I personally used to
only be okay with it in the case of rape and the woman could die because of a
health condition. Now, after an extremely vivid dream where I was a pregnant
teenager, who got knocked up by a guy I was dating only for a week, and wanted
an abortion. (that is obviously very out of character for me, not abortion
wise, being pregnant by a guy I dated only a week) I had my whole life ahead of
me. College, a career, a future. I could not have been a teen mom in that
dream. Waking up that day, my opinion on the issue changed. It wasn’t black or
white. Killing or not killing. It is not only about the fetus, but the woman
carrying it.
Another
thing anti-abortion leaders in America don’t understand is what it’s like to be
pregnant. 77% of anti-abortion leaders are men, and 100% of those men cannot
get pregnant. They cannot possibly understand what it is like to be pregnant or
why a woman would want an abortion in the first place. It is not to “murder” a
fetus. It is because they are too young, don’t have a support system, cannot
physically handle a pregnancy, or even don’t want to pass down a hereditary
illness. When you don’t have a uterus, you don’t have the equipment to get
pregnant. If you can’t get pregnant, how can you fully understand the issue?
If you
are female and are pro-life, then good for you. You have a uterus, therefore
most likely are able to get pregnant. Although I believe it is none of my
business the decisions a woman makes with her doctor, and does with her body,
if a woman is pro-life because of her personal beliefs or maybe she had an
abortion earlier in her life and really regrets it, she can fully understand
that issue.
An
argument recently brought to my attention that is decent is that although a man
can’t get pregnant, he can get someone pregnant. That is a great argument, and
yes, according to biology a man can get a woman pregnant, which is why a man
should not have the option of abandoning the woman he got pregnant and never
coming back. If you want to be a father, then yes, you have a say and try to
convince her you will be there and she won’t be doing this alone, she will have
a support system and not become a stereotype of single moms in America. But if
you are saying you want to be a father, are there, and then either decided
after the baby is born (and is in fact a baby, not a fetus) that you cannot
possibly be a father and then ditch or you are just claiming you will be there
so she won’t get an abortion because apparently you are a pro-life activist,
but then don’t care what happens to the child you helped create, that is not
okay, and you are the scum of the earth.
Another
thing that would help prevent abortion is if people would stop fighting to have
make birth control hard to get for people who can’t afford it or the copay's. So
if congress decided to not launch an attack on contraceptives that work 95 to
99% of the time when used right, less woman would want or need to get abortions
because they wouldn't be able to get pregnant. It is even showed that a lot of
catholic women whose religious leaders are strictly against birth control pills
still take it.
Why is
it that we live in a nation where congress would much rather regulate vaginas
instead of deadly assault weapons? Why are they so adamant about regulating a
female’s body and telling her what she can and can’t do with it? Maybe if they
stopped trying to ban something that even though if it was illegal, would
definitely still happen? Maybe congress and lawmakers should focus more on
stuff that benefit the nation, not them and their personal and most likely
religious beliefs.
