Abortion
When it comes to the long drawn out debate on abortion, I don’t have a label. I’m not pro-choice, pro-life, or pro-kill the baby. I can’t say whether abortion is right or wrong in any situation. It’s simply not my place to call judgment and no matter how hard any of us could ever try, there is no way we could ever know entirely what it is like to be in the situation of an unplanned pregnancy.
However, I can say what I myself would do, and the answer to that is quite simple: No matter what the circumstances, I would never abort. Why? Because I believe in the .99999% chance factor.
If I knew there was a chance the baby or myself (or both) could die, I would still go through with the pregnancy. I would always fight for my child’s life (as would I for mine) no matter what. I cannot control what I cannot control (ie. death), but being a believer in a higher power that governs the universe, I can trust that whatever happens would happen for a reason.
A life vs. a bundle of cells
Before really getting into this article, I feel that I should clarify my stance on the status of the fetus: a life, or a bundle of cells. I consider a fetus to be a developing life; not quite a fully functional life form, but not a dormant rock either. Left untouched, said fetus would develop into a functional human being, and because of that, I am not comfortable simply calling it a “bundle of cells” even at later developing stages.
The following analogy best explains how I view the status of a fetus:
Abortion and the timeline of what was, what is, and what will be
Imagine you could go back in time. Now, imagine you go back in time and mess with history—you prevent the birth and conception of a famous icon like, say, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by whatever means necessary, whether this be an abortion or simply preventing the conception itself.
To return to your time. As expected, the timeline of history has readjusted itself to accommodate your meddling: there is no trace of Mozart in the history books, and technically, he did not exist, even if he once did in your memory. It does not matter whether you remember him to have existed though, because the people have no memory of him. Nobody misses him, and the world misses out everything he had to offer.
I see abortion much like going back in time and erasing the possible presence of a human being. Forget the debate of whether or not the fetus is alive; by aborting, you are essentially altering the timeline of what could be (the effects of a human’s presence on earth), and that which has started (the growth of a new life).
Some say, “but that kind of logic can be used again your view - what if that aborted baby turned out to be a murderer anyway? It would have been a negative impact on society to have let him or her exist” This touches into my opinion on capital punishment, but I will reiterate my response again: Murderer or not, without the chance to live, he or she is nothing. You can’t go around killing everyone “bad” to curb and control the population. You’re not God. Murderer or not, every human deserves a chance at life.
I should also stress that this is not the same logic used behind the belief some conservative extremists hold that birth control is “messing with nature” or “meddling with god’s plan”. You see, birth control prevents conception altogether—but abortion does something very different. It stops the development of a life. It stops something that has already begun, whereas using contraceptives prevents something from happening.
In the case of rape
If I was raped, I would still have the baby. Being raped, I would not have had a say in the event—I did not choose to be raped, and so in that very act my free will and choice for that event was taken from me. Would I dare turn around and do the same thing to my child? In my eyes, aborting my child because I was raped would actually make me no better than my rapist. By aborting my child I would take away that child’s chance at a free will and a life, something far greater than just a highly traumatic experience that I know I could eventually get over.
In the case of being “too young”
I’m young, and while I know that the last thing I need in my life right now is a child, I happen to believe that I am 100% responsible for my actions. Unprotected or protected sex, both ways entail risk to varying degrees. Neither is 100% fail safe. I know this. If I go ahead and have sex anyways with the knowledge that I might end up pregnant, and (surprise, surprise) end up pregnant, there is simply no way I could justify my actions of killing a child because I saw the risk and did it anyway.
But that’s just what I would do if I were in those situations.
I don’t condemn or look down upon women who abort, because I can (to some degree) see their side - the panic, the fear, the inadequacy of being a parent.. I also have strong opinions on parenting and how to raise a child. But is simply not exsisting at all a better alternative to being horribly raised?
Personally, I say no.
I believe that one can overcome anything if he or she has enough drive and will to do so. Even if that child was bounced from one home to another (in the case of being given up at birth) or had an absolutely horrid childhood (in the case of being improperly raised), there will be a point in that individual’s life where he or she will have to take control of his or her life.
No matter what, I would always give my child a chance at life, a chance to make a difference in this world, and a chance to do things better than I did.
And that is where I stand on abortion.
