I believe that a human fetus is a human life, which is sacred, and that abortion is ending that life. I believe this and feel this with all my soul, and the concept of abortion makes me feel sick. I believe it shouldn't be legal because I believe a fetus is a living human soul. My belief is a moral, scientific, and religious one. My belief in the high worth of a woman is also a moral, scientific, and religious one. Hence, I am against abortion because it is anti-woman. There. I said it. I cringe when I hear about abortion being a 'woman's right'. And not just because roughly half of all aborted humans are female. And not just because biologically, the woman's body is made to carry and bear offspring. (Have you ever studied, in depth, the woman's body and its physiology and cycles? It's shocking and humbling to realize that female bodies are literally made to be baby-producing machines. I'm not saying that that is women's only purpose, or that that's every woman's purpose, just that much of what the female body experiences is due to its biological role of reproduction.)
No matter where you stand on the issue of abortion, can we all agree that it's not exactly something you go do for fun? It's a medical procedure, and an invasive one, at that. We'd all like to prevent undergoing a medical procedure if we can. There are many things that lead women to consider an abortion. Ineffective birth control, rape, and lack of (physical, financial, mental, emotional) support seem to be the most obvious problems and common justifications for the practice. Compared to the demand I see for abortion rights, there is little demand for better birth control, harsher sex crime punishments, and more education and support surrounding pregnancy and parenting. Have women really given up? Is this the hill we choose to die on--fighting for abortion rights instead of the kind of rights that promote womanhood and prevent the problems that lead to abortion?
There has been a drive for free and accessible birth control for all, which is commendable, but we clearly aren't where we should be with this. Each form of birth control has some drawback and side effect: the effectiveness, the hormonal consequences, the financial stress, compromised health, decreased physical comfort, and/or lack of convenience. We have come a long way in birth control, but we need more research and better options.
More needs to be done to discourage sexual assault. Harsher punishment, fighting the pornography industry, scaling way back on sexuality in entertainment and advertisement, laws and programs that would promote all of the aforementioned things...we need to fight this! (My brevity in words on this subject does not represent my thoughts on it. For many reasons, I am quite angry, but speechless, about it.)
I can see, through my experience with public schools, that schools are now tasked with the overwhelming responsibility of not only educating, but also of parenting, to a certain extent. Schools are having to teach children things that they should have learned at home. Many children are growing up without the support they need to grow up to be (physically, emotionally, mentally, financially) healthy adults. There are resources and programs to help with that support, but we still struggle. More emphasis on promoting healthy families and homes would be highly beneficial, not only to support a person when something unexpected comes up (i.e., unintended pregnancy), but also to support society as a whole.
I've heard the argument that this is just the world we live in. We have to adjust to it. But, WHY? We can be really good at boldly standing for what we believe in, except...when we're not. Women, why give up?! Why give up and demand the right to the barbaric practice of abortion?! Abortion legalized or not, the law does not fix the root of the problem. Fight for your right as a woman! To be heard! To be healthy! To not be sexually assaulted! To be respected! To be educated! To be supported! Fight for your right to be the glorious woman you are!
Our female bodies have been designed to do the one thing a male body can never do. To deny women from producing offspring in an attempt to make women more "equal" to men, is to strip women of the one thing that makes them more powerful than men. I attended a lecture given by a gynecologist regarding women's health issues, who said that when we block our female bodies from doing what is natural for them to do, we are setting ourselves up for hormonal issues that may lead to cancer and other illnesses later.
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