Everyday we make choices whether we want to or not.  Sometimes we have really great options to choose from and other times we aren’t so lucky.  But everyone has options and everyone gets to choose for themselves.  In America today there is one choice women have that is very controversial–abortion.

            In the South when someone begins to discuss abortion the conversation always turns into a religious argument.  Having been raised in this environment it was really difficult for me to completely understand what was good or bad about abortion.  But on Friday our cohort spent an afternoon with Merle Hoffman at the Choices Clinic, and for the first time I walked away from a conversation about abortion feeling like I really understood what the fight was over.  You see, people try to make  a religious argument that is wrapped up solely in the fact that you are ending the potential life, but what they don’t discuss is why a woman shouldn’t have the right to make that choice for herself.  At the end of the day, this fight is over power.

            Who has the ability to make life and death decisions?  Capital punishment and sending troops to war are two times in which the government is making a life and death decision for  individuals.  Who makes up a majority of the government? Men.  Now don’t get me wrong I appreciate the government and the work they do and I’m not a man hater, BUT it does seem a little hypocritical to allow themselves to make life or death decisions and not the rest of the world, especially on such personal matters like a woman’s pregnancy.  And also who are they, men, to make such strong choices when a woman’s life, body, and state of being are at risk.  Do they know what it is like to be pregnant?  I don’t think so. While I don’t know what it is like yet, I do know that I’m not ready to be a mother and I feel like there are many girls who feel the same way.  So why can’t we choose what is right or wrong for us?

            While this is a fight over power and giving women the right to have a choice, there is also a greater struggle–the stigma surrounding having or not having an abortion.  In today’s society a young girl can’t win, if she gets pregnant and decides to have an abortion people will judge her or if she decides to go through with the pregnancy she is also judged.  Was it not just a decade or two ago that women and men were getting married in their teens?  Having a child at 20 was not uncommon, so why now is it?  Who are we to judge another for something that may not have been in their control.  Today we are fortunate to have multiple contraceptive techniques, but sometimes mistakes or accidents happen.  I believe it is time to focus on prevention.  Okay, pro-life people, so you don’t want to give women the choice of having an abortion, so then focus on preventative measures because the fact of the matter is my generation is sexually active and I don’t see that changing for future generations.  If abortions can’t be an option, give young women some chance to prevent ever needing to go there, help make contraceptive measures more openly available.

            I believe we have spent too many years fighting this battle from a religious lens; it is time to move beyond this and look at the reality of the situation.  Young people are sexually active, and if we don’t allow women to have choices there are going to be a lot of children in this world being raised in environments no child should ever have to experience.  Stop the religious bickering and look at the facts, this world is a scary place even when growing up in a happy household- imagine having to grow up in a household where it is clear you were never wanted and you are just a burden to your parent(s).  In many ways I think the availability of abortion and contraceptive options can decrease the amount of violence in this world, whether it is domestic or not.

            A choice–that is all I’m asking for.  Give me and the rest of women the ability to make choices for ourselves.  Give us power to deem what is right and wrong for our bodies and state of being.  I understand that in having an abortion we end the potential for a life, but allow me to make that decision for myself because nobody understands where I am mentally and physically better than I do.  All I’m asking is for power over my own body.  In choices, we have power.