Roe vs Wade vs Me
So, the USA passed a supreme court motion that has effectively ended the legal abortions. And given power over to the states.
Normally I mind my business about things that don’t affect me. But I have very short opinion pieces to talk about both side.
Pro life.
I believe life begins at conception. Why? It’s the most even measurement. Everything else feels arbitrary and based on opinion.
I was having another “Hydrocarbons” moment, where I realised that if you put Michael Phelps as a Zygote and myself as a Zygote under a microscope, we’d look identical, and yes it would be under a microscope. You wouldn’t see my potential to bless every child I come into contact with or Michael Phelps’ over 2m handspan (I think if you are that large, it should be called wingspan) You wouldn’t see that I smile when I talk or that the man would become an Olympic athlete, therefore you wouldn’t be able to assess our worth. You would just see cells. So as we can’t judge a persons worth or potential, surely we shouldn’t? For the large % of people, abortions happen when people who shouldn’t be having unprotected sex, have unprotected sex. Its normally with a partner, its normally consensual, he hasn’t left/threatening to leave, they just can’t afford a kid/not ready/relationship isn’t strong enough to support one. Those aren’t arguments to kill a 3rd party. They are arguments to not have unprotected sex. Very different.
For men, abortions are an easy fix to bad decisions. Had sex with a woman you don’t love? Abortion. Had unprotected sex when you can’t afford a kid? Abortion. Want to split with the girl and don’t want lingering consequences? Abortion. That’s something that affects the mother, but ultimately kills the child. But nothing happens to the man. Maybe if we gave men a public flogging everytime they had unprotected sex when they weren’t trying for a child (are condoms really so bad???) then maybe the abortion rate would go down. Essentially, the woman and the child get punished, the kid gets the death penalty ultimately, but nothing happens to the man. We as a society haven’t fixed that yet. If life is so sacred, how come you can get your girlfriend to commit murder and you don’t get done for aiding and abetting infanticide? If that kid draw breath and you lay a hair on its head you go to prison. But yet you can order its death and nothing happens to you.
Pro Choice.
My pro-choice argument rests on the fact that I have never been in that situation and so therefore I can’t judge the motivations, fears etc… I’ve never been in love. I’ve never wanted to keep a man so badly that I would debase my body for him. In fact the opposite. When my marriage went down the drain, I got a long acting contraceptive so I wouldn’t be eternally tied to my ex. I have never felt what these women felt, so I can’t tell you “NO” when I have no understanding of how you got to that position. Its easy to say “choose better” when you’re not sitting on the sidewalk in someone’s shoes wet from tears after their husband left them with 3 kids and a fourth on the way. Its easy to tell them life is sacred when you don’t have to prioritise scarce resources, such as time and money between the existing children and the one to come. Especially when you think of the financial implications of birth and the lack of maternity rights in the US. The thing is, if you criminalise abortions, only people who want to perform them with coathangers win. People have been getting rid of babies for thousands of years. My maternal grandmother wanted to abort her last 2 children (twins) she’d had 4 and didn’t want a 5th (and 6th) She kept those children, and she is literally living in the annex of her youngest daughter’s house. Her youngest daughter, the one she was going to abort, literally feeds, clothes and maintains her mother. Her youngest son, provided the family with an additional set of twins who are my grandmother’s pride and joy. For her, it worked out. It couldn’t have been easy, having 6 kids 2-3 years apart including having newborn twins and toddler twins (my mum and uncle) but she coped, she managed and she’s literally reaping the benefits. Had she had that abortion the family would be unimaginably different. My aunt is the life and soul of the party and her daughter takes after her. The family would be downright quiet if Aunt Waltina hadn’t been born, but I don’t like the idea of taking that choice away from someone else just because I have never needed it. Its like me saying I don’t drink alcohol, so lets stop growing grapes for wine, potatoes for vodka and sugar for rum, lets use that land to plant trees and fight climate change. Its technically a good idea. Removing supply from alcoholics, but it smacks of “I know better than you how to live your life, and I get to tell you what coping mechanisms you get to have.” Which needless to say, will get you into a dangerous spiral.
So I sit on the fence. I won’t do it to myself (pray God I’m never forced to make that choice) I will not open my mouth against those forced to make those choices, I will however point out that we’re all adults, we got to live, because we weren’t aborted, yet we are literally playing God with those people who are utterly voiceless because they are still in the womb.
It hurts when I see these things because everyday thousands of people abort healthy children (read kill) and I would desperately love to have a child, a happy, healthy child, children to call my own, yet some people can decide not to keep their own kids.
Either way. I believe serious prayer is needed. Pray for the US because this seems to be a rare occasion when everyone loses.
Grace and Courage.
Annetta Mother Smith.