Choose Life

There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to participate in NARAL's Blog for Choice Day today to commemorate the 35th anniversary of Roe v Wade. What wasn't as clear was what I was actually going to say. Why is it important to vote pro-choice? As I thought of the reasons why I am pro-choice, why it's so absolutely essential, I also searched for a pithy title that would capture the essence. My brain went something like this:

Pro-choice. Choice. Voting. Choosing. To affirm life. Choose to affirm life... Choose Life! That's it!

It took me about a second to realize the irony - that an anti-choice blogger might choose the exact same title. And that most people would see that title as more appropriate there. It's not.

Why am I pro-choice? Because I am pro-life. Real life. A full rich life where people get to make informed decisions that shape their own destinies. Not just the semblance of life. Not just a heartbeat. The debate over abortion is a debate over what it means to be alive. what it means to be a person.

No one is in favor of abortion. No one celebrates that it happens, and if all unwanted pregnancies stopped occurring making abortion obsolete, we would all be immensely relieved. But the fact is that unwanted pregnancies do occur, and pregnancy has a huge impact on the life of the woman - her ability to earn a living, her ability to care for children already born, her social status, her health, her peace of mind. Yes, it is sad to see the end of potential lives, and that is what abortion does. But it is sadder by far to think of half our population unable to make choices that so intimately concern their existing lives.

To be able to choose means to be able to take charge of and to be morally responsible for one's life. The ability to choose is what makes us fully human.

Those who are against a woman's right to choose believe that being pro-life means maximizing the number of bodies on this earth, without regard to the actual quality of life experienced. Those who support a woman's right to choose believe that being pro-life means supporting the people who are already here in every way - in education, health care, and their right to make informed moral decisions for themselves - so that each one of us can grow into our full potential as living human beings.

I am pro-choice because I am pro-life. If you are too then at the ballot box please choose life, vote pro-choice.