Monday, September 5, 2011

Defining Choice

I came across an editorial published online for the Chicago Sun Times about being pro-choice and whether that means defending one's right to have an abortion or to carry to term. I won't recount their editorial, but I think it's a pretty interesting read and recommend you check it out. It made me think about choice and what it means to be pro-choice.

For me personally, pro-choice isn't pro-abortion. I am pro-choice because I think that people have the right to make decisions about their life and their body. If your choice is lawful, why should it be any of my business? For me this means people should be able to choose abortion, choose to carry to term, choose to use their preferred method of contraception, or choose not to use contraception - all without stigma.

It frustrates me to no end when someone refers to me as pro-abortion, which is something anti-choice folks say all the time. First of all, abortion is only one part of what choice means to me. Also, and this may surprise or bother some of my pro-choice brethren, but I'm not pro-abortion. I don't necessarily think that someone should have an abortion. I think they should have the CHOICE. That's what it's about - the ability to choose what is best for you. This blog is the Abortioneers and a lot of what we do and talk about obviously revolves around abortion, but choice, for me, includes many different aspects of reproductive health. And I am happy to live in a country where people have the right to decide which choice is right for them and their families.
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

4 comments:

  1. Ebony MullienSeptember 7, 2011 at 2:37 PM

    what happened to the comments on this entry?

    ReplyDelete
  2. placenta sandwichSeptember 7, 2011 at 2:40 PM

    Ebony - were you thinking of this entry instead? http://abortioneers.blogspot.com/2011/08/pro-choice-hypocrisy.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ebony MullienSeptember 7, 2011 at 5:23 PM

    oops, yes I was. sorry about that!

    ReplyDelete
  4. marroncitoSeptember 9, 2011 at 11:35 PM

    I really like this post. It really helped me crystallized a thought I've been mulling over for some time.

    I am a cis-male. I have a religious background so I understand the desire to 'protect life', but I could never reconcile that with discounting a womans individual life, agency, etc. I learn more every day about what it means to be pro-choice and feel strongly that a woman inherently has sovereignty over her body and her life independent of all others.

    I've thought about what you wrote for 4 days now and I've finally realized that I'm both. I subscribe to both ideas equally and believe them to both be sacrosanct. I believe that there is a way to honor both and have something greater than the sum of its parts. Life doesn't have to be zero sum.

    Thank you for the excellent work you do on this blog. Reading your experiences opens my mind a little more and stretches my thoughts a little farther every day.

    Best Regards,

    Aaron deOliveira
    fb.me/aaron.deoiveira

    ReplyDelete

This is not a debate forum -- there are hundreds of other sites for that. This is a safe space for abortion care providers and one that respects the full spectrum of reproductive choices; comments that are not in that spirit will either wind up in the spam filter or languish in the moderation queue.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)