I am pro-choice because I don't believe anyone but the woman who is contemplating whether to continue with a pregnancy can make that choice for her. It is none of my business whether someone who isn't me opts to carry her pregnancy to term or not. Would I be there to help this unknown woman through the difficult and sometimes dangerous 9-month pregnancy? No. Would I be there to help her raise that child for 18+ years? No. So therefore, I simply cannot justify supporting the pro-life agenda of making abortion illegal. To make a woman choose between bearing and/or raising a child she doesn't have the physical, financial, psychological, or emotional resources for, and committing a crime to merely try to live her one life the way she feels she must is cruel and inhumane. Women already bear the brunt of the world's suffering brought on through and on account of their uterus. Far be it from me, as someone who had the freedom to choose a childless life, to deny that choice to others.
I am pro-choice because I believe in the sanctity of womanhood. I believe womanhood is a beautiful thing that has value in and of itself. It is not defined by its utility for men nor through its role in propagating the species. As is also true for men's reproductive capacity, just because women are biologically ordained with the equipment to conceive and bear children doesn't mean that is the only, or even the ultimate, means through which we can find purpose and meaning in our lives. It most certainly doesn't mean that by having a uterus we are obligated to subjugate ourselves to it. The most precious thing about being human - whether one is male or female - is the process of discernment each person is by birthright entitled to undergo as they journey to the center of their soul to understand their true path to fulfillment. Men have no more right to dictate to women what their life's purpose should be than women have to dictate this to men. Women are complex beings who masterfully balance vulnerability and strength to navigate this world with creativity, compassion and power. Women are capable of fully inhabiting, yet simultaneously transcending, this earthly sphere. The intuitive wisdom of women fertilizes the soul of humanity and the spirit of women gives life to the heart of the world. Trying to commandeer the profound opportunity of a woman's life for one's own purposes is tantamount to murder.
I am pro-choice because I believe in the sanctity of motherhood. You can force a woman to bear a child - which is what pro-life advocates are aiming for - but you can't force a woman to become a mother. Motherhood requires the expending of untold physical, financial, psychological, and emotional resources to a greater or lesser extent over a period of decades. Under what legal or moral authority - not to mention the dictates of practicality - can we obligate a woman to such an undertaking without her full consent? What I understand the highest form of motherhood to be is impossible without it. It would be like forcing someone to become a priest, which requires dedicating your life to God. If by definition, something requires the full exercise of the will, how can it possibly be compelled? If this inherent contradiction can be acknowledged, perhaps it's better to characterize the pro-life position as pro-birthing - or pro-gestation - over pro-mothering.
I am pro-choice because I believe in the sanctity of life. As much as pro-life advocates, I want to eradicate the barbarity of abortion from the face of the earth. But unlike pro-life advocates, I believe you can't extinguish something simply by making it illegal without first removing the conditions from which it unavoidably arises. Abortion is not the true problem but rather is a symptom of the true problem: unwanted pregnancies. Empowering women in their reproductive choices from the beginning is the only way to ensure the choice of abortion never has to be made. Women wouldn't feel compelled to turn to abortion if unwanted pregnancies weren't so difficult to prevent. And unwanted pregnancies wouldn't be so difficult to prevent if women had a bit more help from men - both the ones in their beds and the ones in their legislatures - in this department. As it is, women alone bear 90% of the emotional, psychological, physical and financial burden of preventing pregnancies, yet play only 50% of the role in their creation. And this is with consensual sexual partners. It doesn't even include all the non-consensual sex that women endure (a topic for another article). It is pro-choice governments that have been most effective in actually reducing abortions in the past because they implement policies that empower women to make their own reproductive choices beginning prior to conception. Until women are truly sexually empowered, the staggering rate of unwanted pregnancies - over 40% of all pregnancies worldwide - will continue, and abortion will continue to be seen as a last resort in about half of those cases.
I am pro-choice because I believe the pro-life ideology is not only ineffective in - and is even destructive to - the quest to reduce abortions, but it is vindictive towards women. The pro-life approach does not pursue practical solutions but instead has set itself on a path to strip away what little reproductive power women have left under the guise of protecting the unborn child. Yet no more unborn children are saved as a result of their efforts because overall, removing women's reproductive power without limiting men's only results in more unwanted pregnancies, which results in more abortions. And so the cycle continues. The pro-life faction is in truth motivated not by compassion for the fetus whose life has been cut short, but by a dedication to honoring the sacred sperm. The pro-life mantra disguises its inherently medieval philosophy: that women are nothing more than vessels which allow men's sperm to fulfill its purpose, and that once that sperm chooses to take root in her, she is rendered powerless in its path. The pro-life agenda is to bring the national legal framework back into line with their archaic philosophies. This is not only counter-productive to actually ensuring abortion is eliminated, it is offensive to the principles of human rights upon which our nation was founded.
The truth is that if women aren't empowered from the word go to avoid unwanted pregnancies, the solution is most certainly not to reduce their power even further by refusing them the last word in avoiding unwanted births. The fact that women even find themselves faced with such a horrifying choice as to abort their own fetus is because they were denied their voice from the beginning of their reproductive journey in a world where men have no restrictions on theirs. This reveals a severe sexual imbalance between men and women in our society. Taking away the only chance women have to rectify this imbalance - the ability to make the painful but necessary choice to undo a pregnancy they can't continue with - is tantamount to denying a woman her humanity. The only possible solution to the problem of abortion is to empower women even before conception occurs to enable them to choose motherhood only if and when they can commit their whole body, heart and soul to the undertaking. This is no less than any new life deserves.
