From Pro-Life to Pro-Choice

[piasharn]

There's a very interesting article on abortion that's been making the blog rounds. (At least the ones I read.) If you haven't read the AlterNet story Reflections from a Former Anti-Abotrion Activist, I'd recommend taking a look. It's the story of a woman who started out her beliefs as Pro-Life, because that's how her fundamentalist Christian family raised her. She believed that life began and conception, and, since abortion ended that life, it was wrong. She rallied others. She protested at clinics.

Then she went to college. She took classes, talked to people, and met women who had actually had abortions. She learned that the issue was not nearly as black-and-white as she had been lead to believe. She learned that numerous issues actually affected abortion for women. She eventually abandoned her Pro-Life stance.

The article is something that people on both sides of the debate ought to read. For the Pro-Lifers, it comes from someone they can relate to, someone who still believes that abortion is wrong. How a woman could come to make the choice to have an abortion. (It also shows just how self-righteous and pompous the Pro-Lifers can be. Something that has always irritated me when attempting to debate with them.)

For the Pro-Choicers, it shows how some of the methods of our side can alienate those people like the author - people who don't think that abortion is right, but are willing to allow the option to be available for others. It shows how we've let the Pro-Lifers get the upper hand in many ways. How we have become reactive rather than proactive.

She also points out something that I had never really thought about: that referring to the opposition as "Pro-Life" gave them an advantage right off the bat. As she states, "After all, who isn't for life?" And she's right. (My dad doesn't call them "Pro-Life", he calls them "Pro-Fetus". His opinion, which I cannot fault, is that these people only care about the fetus. When it is born, they no longer give a damn. It could spend 18 years floating around the adoption system, not have access to health insurance or decent education, but the people who fight so vehemently for that fetus to be born do not put any of that energy into making sure it has a decent life.) So perhaps I'll stop calling them "Pro-Life" and switch over to "Anti-Choice". Although the latter term, while accurate, immediately puts people on the defensive and thus less likely to be sympathetic to anything I say. So who knows?

She also emphasizes something that I have been stating for a while now: the root of the problem is not the legality of abortion. The root problem is unwanted pregnancies. If we prevent these - through affordable and available birth-control, good sex-education, availability of health care for everyone, etcetera - we can reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies that occur. If a woman does find herself with an unwanted pregnancy, she has no need to get an abortion.

Sadly, for a lot of people, the issue is control over women, not reducing abortions. Not all of them, mind you, but it's depressing how many of them ignore the ways and means to actually stop abortions from happening, and instead focus all of their energy on trying to make it illegal, which has never been an effective method. (This is true of Pro-Choicers too.) There's a very viable middle-ground that can be reached if we're willing to make the journey.