To those who are not pro-life, the pro-life movement is interpreted as something which it is very much not. I often hear people calling the movement and the people within it “anti-choice” or “anti-women” and defining us by wanting to take away the “rights” of and control women. I also see graphics like this and this on the internet, which basically misconstrue the issue of when the state representative from Michigan was silenced, and also say that men have no say in deciding the issue of abortion. Such pro-choice people are fundamentally misunderstanding what the pro-life movement is really about, though.
I am pro-life because I see the unborn as human persons who deserve equal protection under the law. The law, and the moral values for many, says that murder is wrong. Therefore, it should be wrong to murder the unborn. It should not be acceptable just because unborn children are in the womb, or because having children would be “inconvenient” for someone. I have compassion for those women facing unplanned pregnancies and believe that the best way to support them is to show them that they can have their babies and either become parents or put their babies up for adoption and still live life feeling empowered because they gave life. They don’t have to turn to the desperate, often regretted decision of aborting their children.
Youth March for Life in Washington, D.C. Photo by Sal Guerrero.
If the harmful truth of abortion is really seen, it turns out that to be pro-life is to actually be pro-women. But the pro-choice movement wants people to think that the “anti-choice” and “anti-women” movement wants to take away the rights of women. They certainly don’t consider the rights and choices of the unborn. It’s actually silly to think that the pro-life movement is concerned just with “making rules ABOUT vaginas” for the sake of controlling women. Women are the ones who carry and give birth to their children. That’s why the vagina, as the birth canal, is involved. A vagina is one of many body parts, but it is one with many wonderful, life-giving features. A woman’s vagina should be celebrated because it gives life, rather than as merely a symbol for sexuality.
Also, it is truly bothersome to hear that men cannot “make rules” simply because of the body part which they have (or don’t have). A man cannot carry a child or give birth. It’s not the man’s fault, but rather simple biology. While women carry their children to term and give birth, they cannot create children all on their own. A man contributes 50% of his DNA to create that child. A man can be pro-life for the same reasons which I listed above – because he wants to protect and save the unborn. Such reasons certainly do not make him anti-women and controlling. Yet the pro-choice movement still feels the need to silence the opinions of men who are pro-life. Naturally, it has no problems with men who are pro-choice. If this article were anonymous, I doubt one would be able to figure out if I was a man or a woman. Regardless of my sex, my reasons are still valid.
Since I am a woman, though, by the standards of such a graphic, I should be able to “make rules ABOUT vaginas” since I have one, right? I wonder what such abortion advocates behind the graphic would say to me. My guess is that they would call me, a woman, anti-women.
While a mother’s womb should be the safest place, it has unfortunately become a dangerous place for the unborn. In January of 2012, the number of unborn children who were aborted since Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in all 50 states was almost at 55 million. That number has gone up, with over 3,300 abortions a day.
I believe in rights, but I do not believe in the right to kill an unborn child, a being who is so defenseless and vulnerable, but full of such potential at the same time. Women who do have abortions also often suffer as well. Is that the kind of “right” women really want to have? Once the abortion has been performed, the unborn child is dead, and the woman is left to consider what she has done. If anything, I see pro-lifers and the pro-life movement as ensuring rights, not taking them away.
