It's A Matter of Choice

Recently, I came across the documentary ‘Reversing Roe’ on Netflix, which discusses the attempt to reverse the decision on legal abortions in the United States. The documentary argues both sides of the debate, but my heart will always heavily stray towards the Pro-Choice movement. I felt the same before the repeal of the eight amendment in Ireland this past year.

To me, the debate over removing legal abortions is ridiculous. The most ludicrous thing about it is the fact that for the most part, it’s men who make the decision on legalising abortions in almost every country. Men – who have no idea of the implications of carrying a child for nine months. Who get the option to walk away from their child and its mother if it’s inconvenient for them. Men who have no idea of how hard a decision it is to terminate a pregnancy because they can’t become pregnant in the first place. Men making decisions about women’s bodies is like some kind of dystopian present I wish was just a plot of a novel and not reality.

I’m pro-choice. One-hundred-percent I am pro-choice. Because it should be a choice. A decision should be made between a woman and her physician to do what is right for her. Terminating a pregnancy may be right for some women for different reasons. No one has a right to make a woman feel bad about her decision. Because it ought to be hers to make, always. It is in no way an easy decision to terminate a pregnancy; women don’t get abortions because they’re fun. The decision is hard enough for a woman to make and if she has decided to terminate her pregnancy, in no way is it okay to shame her into reversing her decision. She’s made that decision because it is a decision which benefits her the most. She is the most important factor, not a middle-aged man trying to ban her from her abortion, who has no idea of how agonising her decision was.

It’s controversial but I don’t necessarily think that the foetus is the most important factor in any abortion. I think it’s the woman – the one who’s currently breathing and living a life and a legacy. A woman can make another baby if she wants to; no one has met the one she never gave birth to. She’s ten times harder to replace than a foetus. She’s a woman with opinions and passions and a character, and the foetus inside of her has barely grown any fingers. It seems cold and harsh, but we must never diminish a woman to simply the carrier of a child who hasn’t even grown eyes yet. She has a life, one she may threaten if she doesn’t obtain the abortion she needs safely and legally. What if her child will cause her death if she is forced to give birth to it? What if the foetus inside of her won’t even take its first breath because the likelihood of it surviving to full term is so low? Would you still force a woman to continue with her pregnancy in the hope of a miracle, only for her to have her heart ripped into two by meeting a child she will never see take their first breath?

People too often synonymise abortion with birth control, but the matter goes so much further than that. Giving birth to a child at age sixteen, without any way of financial support for the child, by having to press pause on your own future deems the question of whether it’s worth it? Is it worth going through nine months of a pregnancy to have to give yourself to someone else when you barely know who you are? I’m eighteen and there is no way I could look after a child. I’d have to give up on my dream for the time being when I’ve barely managed to make any kind of path to reaching it yet. At age eighteen, my life is a mess and there is no way I could imagine being in control of another life. There is absolutely no way I’d force that on anyone else, especially not a young woman younger than I am if she feels the same way as I do.

In 2016 America took such a large step back in electing Donald Trump as its President. Donald Trump’s administration removed government funding to Planned Parenthood, (a company based in the United States which offers all kinds of sexual health opportunities), because it is primarily known as the clinic in America which offers women a safe and legal abortion. Trump also aided Senator Rick Perry in his race to become the Texas Senator. After winning the post, Perry implemented a law in Texas which means that women considering an abortion are forced to have a sonogram to ‘see what they are doing’. Guilting a woman into having a baby she cannot care for and a child she does not want. Not only does the law punish women who are already making such an incredibly hard choice, it also means that any kind of anonymity those women deemed to have is thrown out of the window. Their medical files will forever have a sonogram of a foetus they didn’t give birth to. In Texas, that brands you.

I’m eighteen and you may think that’s too young to have an opinion on a matter so tough. But I’ve done my research. I wrote a speech two years ago on the reproductive rights of women. More importantly, though, I am a woman. I’m old enough to be deemed an adult. I’m also old enough to realise that although women’s’ reproductive rights are more progressive in the United Kingdom than they are in the rest of the world, they’re not solely ours. Women even here in the UK don’t have complete control over our own reproductive rights. Rights which include abortions. Did you know that although it is legal to obtain an abortion in Wales, Scotland and England it is illegal to do so without the consent of three different medical practitioners? When you seek to obtain a termination of your pregnancy you must do so in the United Kingdom before the twenty-fourth week of said pregnancy; if you are finding it difficult to find three separate doctors who deem it safe for you to obtain an abortion your time could easily run out. Even when you are making one of the hardest choices any one person could make, you could be forced to proceed with the pregnancy regardless.

Look, everyone has their own personal opinion on abortion and terminating a pregnancy and you’re entitled to the way you feel. But please don’t be an arse. If a woman makes the decision to terminate her pregnancy, keep your mouth shut. It’s not your decision to make – it’s not your body. You don’t have to agree with her, but don’t you dare make her feel guilty for the decision she’s made. She’s not made it lightly. Women may have been considered to be baby-making factories years ago (let’s not get into that, it’s just ridiculous), but that was a time where people also thought that racism was okay. Just let a woman make the decision that’s right for her – it may not be the decision you’d make, so just be glad you’re not the one who has to make it, okay?

Terminating a pregnancy isn’t fun, and it’s not always because a woman doesn’t want a child. Sometimes the woman wants the child more than anything, but complications mean that continuing the pregnancy to full-term might breach both mother and child. Whether you are pro-choice or not, keeping your views to yourself when encountering a woman who has chosen abortion. You don’t know why she’s made that decision and it’s none of your business.

You don’t have to agree with me, but the fact of the matter is, in the United Kingdom we get to make a choice. Not everyone can say the same.

#abortion #prochoice #America #UK