I was at dinner with an old acquaintance a few weeks ago. We ran out of things to talk about, as our lives, joined for hardly a few months, parted ways without regret or attachment. We ended up talking about the election, the candidates, the issues. During my miso soup he just came out and asked me, "are you pro-life or pro-choice?"
I almost choked on a piece of tofu. That question has haunted me for years. My views on this particular issue are irrelevant--it is the actual question which infuriates. The only two values in this debate are pro-choice and pro-life; if I were not pro-life, then would that mean I am pro-abortion, pro-death?
Furthermore, women who are pro-life choose to keep their babies; they claim their rights to choose. Is this not pro-choice?
Are all women who get abortions pro-death? Many times, it is much less their choice to abort the fetus than it is a woman's choice to keep a fetus. "Pro-choice" women feel the anguish, the pain, the lifelong burden of having aborted a child. But they are cast of by ultra-conservatives as pro-death, by virtue of their not being pro-life.
It is simply a linguistic problem, but it infuses an entire psychology of our society. We forget that the decision to keep a child is also a choice, that the decision to abort a fetus is not from sheer malice.
I looked up at my dinner companion. "Um...just pass the soy sauce."
Pro-choice does not imply that you will ever get an abortion. It would take a lot for me to make the choice to have an abortion, and I hope I'm never in a situation where I would. But I still support a woman's right to choose what happens to her own body. That's why I'm pro-choice... not because I favor abortions, but because it's wrong to enslave a gender because she is the only one that can give birth.
~C
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Yes!
And moreover, pro-life is a choice, but when it is enforced by the government, it takes away from our inherent rights as American citizens to have control over our own bodies.
peace,
RD
No, you can be pro life and be pro choice.
Here is what it means to be prochoice:
You can be pro life and keep the child
You be pro life but do believe there should be restriction on a women decision to have an abortion.
the antichoice agruement:
There is no access to abortion.
You must carried to term.
You can either keep the child or give it up for adoption.
You can be prolife be a part of the prochoice movement at the same time but you cannot be "pro life" by favoring restriction on abortion than claim to be a believer in a woman decision to choice.
Hey, don't forget to read my blog about sex ed.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/49399-dont-use-condom-it-had-99-failure...
Personally, I think that the "Pro-Life" movement would benefit from changing their title to something like "Anti-Death."
I believe, understand, and am sensitive to the fact that giving birth to a new life is a highly sensitive subject.
I also believe that women should be afforded the respect that acknowledges that an individual woman, with her unique circumstances, and unique consequences, can accurately judge the appropriateness of her own self mothering a child.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
Pro-Life is a euphemism for Anti-Choice.
Pro-Choice is just that, Pro-choice.
The former does not really hinge on a woman's right to choose to keep her fetus and allow it to develop into a child, it actually hinges upon the idea, religiously inspired, that a woman does not have a choice; she must carry to term or else she will burn in hell.
The latter is advocated by plenty of women who would never have an abortion. I personally have several female friends who refused to have an abortion and who chose to carry their child to term, but they are still pro-choice. They respect the fact that they had the right to choose not to have an abortion as much as the respect another woman's right to choose to have one.
The Pro-Life contingent can not be placed under the Pro-Choice banner, because they simply are not Pro-choice; their assertion is that neither they nor anybody else has or should have a choice. Their stance is absolute, with no ifs or buts.
_____________________________________________________________
I am the people my mother warned me about.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tuffgong
TUFFGONG
Senior Executive Administrator™
I had an eye opening conversation with someone a little while ago about this very subject. My boss' mom was very upset with her for being pro-choice. She asked how she could be pro-choice when she has three beautiful boys. My boss and I both stopped in our tracks and realized at the same moment that her mom thought being pro-choice meant you would have an abortion. We explained to her that pro-choice simply means the right to decide what happens to your body under a host of circumstances, and not that you want to have abortions or use it as birth control. I wonder how many people think that all pro-choice people are having abortions, or would do it in a heartbeat?
I am pro-choice, but I don't think I would ever have an abortion. Maybe if the pregnancy would kill me, but if I got that news late in my pregnancy I might choose to take my chances with the delivery. The point is, I'd like to have the right to CHOOSE!
"Never go with a hippy to a second location."
~Jack Donaghy
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman