CHOICES: Women have the right to choose what they do with their bodies and their futures.
by Amy Wang, Opinions Editor
Freedom is the foundation of our country. The freedom of speech, the freedom of religion and the freedom of press are all deemed important in every American’s mind. With these freedoms come choices: chances to decide how we exercise these freedoms. We are taught to respect each others’ opinions, regardless of discrepancies, because we all have a right to our own beliefs.
But we have no right to impose our beliefs onto others.
When Marlise Munoz was taken off of life support after being declared brain dead, pro-life supporters rallied in protest. Her husband, Erick Munoz, had to fight for his wife’s right to die all because of one detail: the fetus in Marlise’s womb. Despite the fact that Marlise was both medically and legally declared dead by doctors, a Texas law forbidding the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment for a pregnant patient forced the hospital to keep her on machines.
After Erick won his case against the hospital and his wife was allowed to completely pass at last, instead of being allowed to mourn, Erick found himself in the middle of a classic, controversial debate that heats up even the most disinterested of us all: the personhood of a fetus. Or, to put it more simply and broadly, the abortion debate.
The public seems more interested in the loss of potential lives than actual lives. While the passing of Marlise Munoz was tragic—as are all deaths—her story never would have made the headlines if there was not a fetus in her womb. The sad truth is that, when it comes to the argument against abortion, supporters are more concerned with innocent, hypothetical lives than the mothers bearing them.
Having a child is a huge step in any woman’s life, but it can also be a wrong step. In the peer-reviewed journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, a late 2005 survey showed that 73% of women said they had an abortion because they could not afford to have a baby, and 38% said giving birth would interfere with their education and career goals. Some women are not emotionally, financially or even physically prepared for the responsibilities that come
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with bearing children, and that is no one’s right to judge or reprimand against.
A common argument pro-life supporters like to use is the lost chances associated with a lost fetus. What if she grows up to be the scientist who cures cancer? What if he grows up to be the president? And what if, even more likely, the kid grows up in poverty, unwanted and uncared for? There are too many hypotheticals, and too little evidence to back up any of these claims. Instead of focusing on unborn children, we should focus on the ones we already have. According to Feeding America, in 2012, 16.1 million (21.8 percent) children under the age of 18 were in poverty, and 49 million Americans lived in food insecure household (33.1 million adults and 15.9 million children). These children are actually suffering, but all pro-life supporters care about is that they are “alive”—as if getting by on spare meals and barely surviving can be called that.
Taking abortion out of the law has also proven ineffective. In 2006, the World Health Organization estimated that illegal abortions caused 68,000 maternal deaths yearly in countries that have banned abortion. There are other ways to prevent abortions that do not require the extreme of outlawing them. Free birth control and emergency contraceptives can end the problem before it begins. By offering professional, safe abortion procedures, we are saving lives.
Choosing to have an abortion is not murder. There is no consensus among the scientific community as to when a personhood is developed in a fetus; that conviction is specific to each person individually. But simply because one person believes personhood starts at conception does not mean another agrees, and that certainly does not mean that that person has the right to force his or her beliefs into the law. As upheld in the U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, a woman’s ability to choose abortion is “a fundamental right.”
It is no one’s place to tell a woman that she must go through a pregnancy she cannot handle. Regardless of anyone else’s moral, religious or emotional beliefs, in the end, the body bearing the fetus holds both the responsibility and the ability to choose her own future. She should not have to suffer because of one mistake.
Being pro-choice is exactly as it sounds: I support the ability for women to choose what they do with their own bodies. This has nothing to do with my own beliefs, or anyone else’s for that matter. Abortion is a safe procedure recognized by the American Medical Association that gives women a second chance.
Give women the choice to have that second chance.