“Pro-Life.” What a wonderful term, and at the same time a fascinating misnomer. On the surface it sounds like a romantic idea in which people enjoy and love life and everything in it, wishing no harm to anyone or anything. The truth of the matter is its nothing at all like that. At least not to those who claim the term most fervently.
I could spend days explaining the necessity for legalized abortion and why the war on clinics like Planned Parenthood (who do more than just abortions, by the way) is a danger to women across the country. However I will sum it up as best as I can. Because there are things like rape and incest, which often result in pregnancy (no matter what your congressmen might tell you about the body “shutting that whole thing down”), if a victim is forced to carry that fetus to term it is like being raped again by the system. Sound harsh? Ask anyone who has had to endure it. Add to that the fact that there are a great number of women who end up with risks to their own lives by carrying out certain pregnancies. Should those women and the fetus being carried both die just to ease the comfort of the “pro-lifers”?
I agree that abortion as birth control is wrong, but abortions in this manner are not the norm. As a matter of fact, they represent the lowest number of procedures carried out. Abortion isn’t a decision women come to lightly. You can’t just walk in off the street and get one, unless your demise is imminent. You have to sit through counseling first, then after a nurse tries to convince you that there are other alternatives you have to go home and think about what you are considering doing…for a couple of days. This makes it harder. You now know what you are considering, they have described, demonstrated, and shown photographs detailing the procedure and now you sit numbly reliving the education for the next 48 hours. Thinking. Then, when you still carry it through, you now have to live with that choice for the rest of your life.
And it’s not like the adoption system makes anything easier – it’s virtually impossible for people to adopt. As an example, I have a Christian friend who has tried to conceive with her husband. For whatever medical reason they are unable to so they looked into adoption. They both hold steady jobs (she is a teacher, for example) and are regular attendees of their church. As far as a conservative is concerned, they are the model family for adoption. They attended all of the parenting classes and were even cleared to foster children. However they were denied the right to adopt over and over again. The couple ended up going to the Ukraine and adopting two girls because it was easier and less expensive. They are not an exclusive case either. They found their agency from a friend who had the same problems here in the U.S.
The most egregious part of the whole concept of being “pro-life” is that pro-lifers do not seem to care about children after they are no longer in the womb. They do not support programs that help feed children, they care little about education to teach children, they ignore the plight of homeless children by trying to block funding for programs that would shelter children, and they fight any attempt to raise the minimum wage to help families get off of state funding. Where is the compassion for life then? Why is there no “pro-life” picketing when any of those things happen?
So, lets be real about what it is pro-lifers really stand for. They are not actually “pro-life,” as claimed. So I propose a change. How about from now on everyone is honest about the fact that in reality what they mean is the more appropriate term, “Anti-Abortion?”