Since When Did Life Cease to Be a Choice?

I was reading one of Erik's books today (yes, i know, shocking that Erik owns any books) called Time of Your Life by Michael W. Smith. I was struck by something he talks about towards the end of the book-- a woman who wanted to have a booth at the Lilith Fair in Cleveland in 1999 for a group called Feminists for Life (www.feministsforlife.org). She was not allowed to have her group's booth on the grounds at Lilith Fair Feminists for Life is a feminist group that is opposed to abortion as a violent act against both women and unborn children. In addition to that, they promote better services and treatment of pregnant women in the belief that with more support and acceptance, no woman would actually choose to have an abortion. While I don't necessarily agree with all their views, I do agree that life is a choice.

Why would a self-proclaiming festival of diversity censor a very valid and viable option in the face of an unplanned pregnancy? I can say first hand that it's a very scary thing. The idea of giving up, or at least drastically revising, all the plans you already have made in favor of something unknown, and by all accounts hard and sometimes lonely, is probably one of the scariest things I've ever had to deal with. But at the same time, how do I know that those plans wouldn't have failed to begin with?

I still don't know if I made the correct decision, but I do know that I made the right decision. Allow me to explain. Regardless of religious beliefs, discussions of good and evil, and the sake of one's soul, real or imagined, I know that murder in any form is wrong, and my conscience wouldn't have it. I would end up seeing myself as a bad person for the rest of my life. So I chose the harder road. I'm scared. I'm really scared. I never really saw myself as the kind of person who would have kids, or at least not the kind that would have them at a young age. I've always been very careful about birth control, and of course, the one time I wasn't, I paid the price.

I'm so afraid that I will end up being a total loser for the rest of my life because I'm going to have to go a completely different road. College is not a place for people with kids. It's going to be so much harder to go to school now. I had planned on being an architect. Now, I'm going to go to a government vocational school and study culinary arts. I'm hoping that I will be able to go through that program and get a decent paying job so I can then go through college and still support myself and my kid. And all along the way it's going to be so much tougher than it would have been otherwise. But that's my fault. I'm not going to punish something that has no voice and no real say in the matter for my mistake. I'm just going to deal with it and see what I can make of myself anyway.

This is what strikes me most about the fact that it seems that "pro-choice" groups don't seem to advocate the "pro-life" standpoint as well: Pro-choice is about convenience, plain and simple. I am not against abortion. I think it is wrong to give a girl flak for choosing to have an abortion. I think it is wrong to outlaw it, because just because something is illegal does not mean that it won't happen. Not to mention that abortions performed at home will be the cause of so many deaths and injuries. However, I also think that the first option should be life. If not necessarily with the mother, than with a family that has the desire and means to care for it. I do not think that abortion should be so lightly offered by such groups as Planned Parenthood (www.plannedparenthood.org) or the NOW (www.now.org). There needs to be a balance that we don't currently seem to have in the pro-life/ pro-choice debate.

--Dragon Read more!