Atheist Adventures

I have a huge problem with the people who are pro-life because they’re not pro-life, they’re anti-choice. 

Pro-choicers aren’t abortionists because that would also be anti-choice. We don’t want every single woman to be forced to have an abortion. We just want it to be a safe and legal option for everyone. We’re not trying to force women into making their decisions for them. That’s what the pro-life movement does. Pro-choicers give you …wait for it… a choice!

A healthy, safe, and legal choice. Face it: If abortion were illegal, it would still happen. It just wouldn’t happen legally or in a safe and healthy manner. Because if you just can’t have a baby, then you will do anything not to have it. 

I can’t count how many horror stories I’ve heard of teenage girls who have to wear loose clothing to hide their pregnancy, have to give birth in a dark alley way, then have to leave the baby to die in a dumpster because they were too afraid to get an abortion or felt like they couldn’t for whatever other reason. And that’s while abortion is still legal!

And that really hit home for me.

Taking myself as an example, I’m only 20. Still in college. If I were to get pregnant, it would probably have to be that I skipped a pill once on accident or my pill just didn’t work for whatever reason and the condom broke. Pretty slim chances there, but birth control pills and condoms aren’t 100% effective, especially if I were to accidentally skip a day and the condom broke. 

So let’s just imagine that this happened. (It better not…) If I were to become pregnant, I definitely wouldn’t expect it. Therefore I wouldn’t really be looking for it, and there’s a good chance I would miss the deadline to take plan B. Not sure about the specifics about plan B, but let’s just imagine I can’t take it.
Or we could consider plan B as a type of abortion. In many cases of abortion, you’re killing just a few cells because it’s hardly developed at all. That sounds like what plan B would do if you took it, and it were effective in doing anything. (as opposed to not doing anything because you weren’t actually pregnant at all).

So that’s out. All other choices, according to pro-lifers, are limited to carrying out the fetus to full term and then either taking care of it or giving it up for adoption.

Adoption centers are extremely crowded. If a child isn’t eventually adopted, it will likely go to an orphanage. Also crowded, not good conditions. Also, in case you didn’t know, I was adopted. I know what that has the potential to do to a child. I say potential just to point that out as a possibility; I still recognize there are other possibilities. Could the child go on to lead a great life? Sure. Could it be awful? Also possible. We don’t know. You can’t argue on “what if”s because those can go both ways and don’t provide for good arguments. What if the baby you didn’t give birth to would have found the cure for cancer? What if the mother didn’t drop out of college to take care of that child and therefore didn’t get enough education to find the cure for cancer? See how these don’t really justify why you should make a certain decision? There are too many what ifs.

Personally, I couldn’t give that child up for adoption unless I knew it was going to go on to live a great life, which, like I said, can’t really be known. That’s just my personal reasons. There are lots of women who get pregnant without planning for it and give the child up for adoption. It’s not a bad choice. It’s just not a choice I can make. I’m not emotionally ready to even be pregnant. Also not physically ready, I get sick so easily as it is. Also, since I don’t weigh much (less than 100lbs), I could possibly die in childbirth. So that’s out. 

The other choice is to keep the child, and that surely isn’t happening. If I were to survive childbirth (which isn’t unlikely, but still), I still don’t support myself finically. My parents are NOT going to be ok with me having a kid. They can’t and wouldn’t take care of it for me. No one I know would want to take it off my hands for me. I’d have to drop out of college in order to have time for enough jobs to raise enough money to take care of the child. I’m definitely not emotionally ready to give birth to, let alone feed, clothe, shelter, and raise a child. Hell, I still act like a child myself. 

I would freak out just knowing that I was pregnant, let alone knowing I couldn’t legally abort it and therefore had to somehow figure out what to do with the child, then would have to be sick and moody for 9 months, go through excruciating, potentially life threatening pain, and then either deal with the drastic life-changing consequences of keeping and taking care of it or give it up for adoption, which is also emotionally difficult. 

Obviously both of these options would be absolutely horrible for me. Does that mean having an abortion would be rainbows and candy? Hell no. I would feel awful. It’s just that carrying the fetus to full term is not an option that I really can afford to choose in my life.

Now realize that there are thousands of people in similar predicaments as I. 

But life is a gift! …Then I deserve the right to return it.

But the baby has a heart beat after X weeks. What about my heart beat!? In fact, I find that nearly any argument you can make for the fetus can also apply to the mother. What doesn’t apply to the fetus is that it isn’t giving up the right and access to its own body in order to physically, emotionally, and financially care for another person. In fact, it’s the one being cared for.

But the fetus can feel pain after X weeks. I can feel physical pain too. I can also feel emotional pain, which it can’t yet, at least not on the same level and in the same significance. (In fact, you can’t even form memories until around age 4.) If the emotional pain of going through with a pregnancy is worse than the emotional pain of having an abortion, it should be legal. The fetus hardly knows what’s going on. If it even gets to the point where it’s more than cells, which isn’t the case in most abortions. 

But women use abortion as a method of birth control all the time, and I think that’s wrong. I’m not going to even argue this until I see a source of that actually being true. In the few cases of this happening (still doesn’t mean it’s not extremely uncommon), it’s even rarer that this would be a third trimester or otherwise late abortion where what you’re “killing” is anything more than a few cells.

But these cells aren’t just any cells, they hold the potential for life! So masturbation is murder? Again, you’re making an argument on what ifs. 

But every person has the right to life. That doesn’t include the right to someone else’s life. Yes I am giving up my body to take care of another human being. In no other circumstance is that legally required. Also, I don’t consider a fetus a person yet. That’s debatable. Many pro-choicers still do, but they would argue that in no circumstance is someone legally required to take care of another person. 

But this isn’t just any person we’re talking about. You created it; it’s your child! Parents have to take care of their children, as seen in the case of paying child support. Financial obligations are trivial compared to bodily obligations. Also, parental obligations, even in non-financial manners, do not require the mother to donate the direct use of her body for the sake of the fetus.

But you had sex. There’s a chance of pregnancy. You should have considered that. I did. And took measures to prevent it. Consent to sex does not mean consent to pregnancy because sex does not always lead to pregnancy. Even if a woman did agree to pregnancy, it does not mean she shouldn’t have the right to change her mind. Consent to conception does not also translate to consent to taking care of the fetus for the full 9 months.  

But it’s killing! Murder is illegal! Why not abortion? Personally, I see abortion not as directly killing but as indirectly letting die. There is no possible way for the mother to deny the fetus care without it dying as a result. Even if we were to accept that abortion is killing as opposed to letting die, an exception can still be made because the mother has a right to her own body. 

Every child wanted. Every mother willing.