I am Pro-Choice, but not Pro-Abortion

Abortion is in the news. It’s always in the news. I don’t know why but we are a nation obsessed with one side or the other on this issue. Since Roe v. Wade in the early 70s, the sides have become bigger, louder, and more entrenched.

Everyone is on one side or another whether they acknowledge that they are or not. Either you think abortion is bad or you think women should be allowed to choose. There really isn’t a middle ground (per se). Either you want the right to choose kept legal or you want it taken away.

My position isn’t popular among the conservative Christian friends I have. I am Pro-Choice. I have been accused of “choosing death” and “siding with evil” and many worse things that I can’t really put in a public blog post. I did not arrive at my position easily, or comfortably. For much of my life, I was very Pro-Life, convinced that all those poor babies deserved to live and that abortion was wrong and evil and…. and… and….

But guess what? My opinion on abortion, on its horror and ‘wrongness’, has not changed. I am very very anti-abortion and I will be leading the parade when the last one is performed. Seriously. I hate it.

So many pro-lifers get this wrong. Pro-Choice does not mean Pro-Abortion. No one, not one person, not the doctors or nurses that perform them, not anyone, “likes” abortion. There is no one going around advocating that it’s a good and necessary procedure. (If there is, they’re insane). Abortion is a violent invasive procedure that does damage (albeit temporary) to a woman’s body. Anyone that claims to “like” it is a crackpot.

I am Pro-Choice. I am anti-abortion. I want abortion to end. I want unwanted pregnancies to end. I want every child born in this country (and everywhere in the world) to be a wanted child, a loved child, a cared-for child. But until that happens, I have to be pro-choice.

Why? Why do I feel I HAVE to be pro-choice? Simple. Abortion won’t go away just by making it illegal. Illegal abortions were done before Roe v. Wade and illegal abortions are still performed in other parts of the world and when abortion is outlawed in this country illegal abortions will surge.

Do you know the story of Pandora’s Box? No, I’m not talking about the radio station or the jewelry company or anything like that, I’m talking about the original story.

The gods had placed all the evil that existed in a box. All the monsters and demons and death and disease and all of that stuff in a box. Locked away. Then along comes a woman named Pandora. She had been warned never to look in the box, but she couldn’t help it, she had to take a peek. The instant she cracked the lid, all the evil escaped into the world. (I can’t help but draw parallels with the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man from a piece of fruit….) Once all the stuff was out, it couldn’t be put back in.

That’s abortion in our modern world. Pandora’s box has been opened and it can’t be shoved back in and locked. It’s out there and it will stay out there. Legislation, constitutional amendment, whatever, it’s not going to go away.

But we can limit the damage. We can prevent needless harm to countless women by keeping abortion legal, safe, and available. But… BUT… there’s no reason it should be common. We can make it rare.

How? Start young. Teach young men and women about sex and conception and contraception and health choices and all of that. We need to make birth control extremely effective, painfully cheap (if not totally free), and above all EDUCATE EDUCATE EDUCATE.

The way to end abortion, the way to be truly pro-life is to make sure there is not one single unwanted pregnancy.

Is this a dream? A fantasy? Consider this:

Colorado claims contraceptive program caused big drop in teen birth rates

If this is true, it means that making free or nearly free contraceptives available WORKS to cut down on the number of unwanted pregnancies. Granted this article only looks at one age group, but even in that population, a 40% drop is HUGE!! Carry this to its logical conclusion and the light at the end of the tunnel is the HOPE of an abortion-free world.

So many people are fighting the wrong battle. Hobby Lobby, various Republican politicians, anti-feminists — they focus so hard on trying to get people to stop having sex. And while I am not advocating pre-marital sex of any sort, especially among teens, the reality is people “do it”. You can’t legislate morality (at least not when it comes to sex). What you can do is fight the right fight.

I am Pro-Choice. And proud. And I vote.

What do you think? Share your comments here or on Facebook, twitter, Google+, etc. (Keep it polite please).