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I wouldn't say I was ever pro-life.

More like, it's fine if abortion is legal, but you're a terrible person for getting one.


And then as I got older, I started noticing how...wrong the pro-life argument felt. I do believe a fetus is a life, and some sadness is in my heart when I think about abortion. However, I don't feel it's right, even if you're saving a fetus, to deny someone the rights to their own body. Oh my god, that's just scary. That's the "greater good" mentality that'll run this society into the ground. It even irks me that they force us to wear seatbelts in cars, and the only reason I'm alive today is because of a seatbelt. Sure, it's saving lives, but it's also stripping freedom.

Not okay. ):


But what really solidified it, and made me want to speak out about the faults of the pro-life argument, was when I was pregnant.

Now, I considered all my options when I found out. I chose to keep the pregnancy.

But I endured more hell in doing so. There was a few times when even the doctor didn't know if I'd live. My body has been permanently affected. I have a slight limp, I'm scarred, and if I choose to have another child (which I'll likely incur the same problems, if not more), I will have to have another c-section, which highly increases my chance of uterine rupture among other fun complications.

And all I can think, when it comes right down to it, is...I did that willingly, and it was hard enough, how could forcing someone be alright? D:

I don't know what to call myself, or how to vote in the poll. I can remember one incident when we drove past a "fetusmobile", and my mom told me not to look. I thought that these people were presenting some great and horrible truth, and that my mother was trying to hide it from me because she thought I was "too young". (I thought the same thing when my dad objected to my reading gory PETA propaganda.) I thought that those people were trying to expose the truth about this horrible crime, this tragedy, and every other adult wanted to hide it from me. I can remember those feelings very well. However, I can remember at other times, I always sided with the woman. I always cared about womens' rights, and even though I never would have admitted it before the age of about 16, I was always a feminist. So my memories conflict. I saw The Cider House Rules when it came out, and I know my sympathy was with the women then. When I read an article about forced abortion taking place under China's old-child policy, I knew it was wrong to force a woman to have one she didn't want. In any abortion debate or discussion, I always cared about the woman's rights, even before I understood bodily domain. But I also remember, very distinctly, a time when I was very young and I bought into pro-life propaganda. What did I start as? A fence-sitter? I want to say I was always pro-choice because I was in my teens, but I remember that time when I saw a giant picture labeled "ABORTION" with a picture of a fragmented stillborn, and nothing would have convinced me that abortion was anything other than how they portrayed it, or that there was anything that made it acceptable.



The bolded bit really scares me and makes me mad. They were trying to brainwash you guys! Kids that young typically don't have good reasoning skills. They're not old enough to question or think about it most of the time. Thinking skills like that don't come about until about 12 or 13, according to what I've heard.

I hate when religious groups try to teach kids things that serious and complex when they're too young to understand. They're trying to drill a simplistic, black-and-white version into your head so that you won't question it. It's disgusting that they're so afraid of being defied that they have to resort to that.

Besides, did they even teach you what it was at that age? I doubt it. They'd be in a lot of trouble if they taught you about anything else that grown up, but not as long as they're teaching you propaganda!



*laughs* I probably would have been that girl that stood up. I was like that in seventh grade. At least, I hope I would have had the courage to speak up.. And the kids would have hated me, bullied me. I would be the only one to go home crying.

From what I can recall (it was quite awhile ago sweatdrop ), one of the Priests came in and told us that there was going to be a contest--whoever wrote the best essay about how terrible abortion was would have their paper read during Mass (whoop-de-doo), and given a $20 giftcard to someplace I can't remember. Almost everybody raised their hands to ask what abortion was, and he pretty much said (a paraphrase):

"Abortion is when a woman gets pregnant, but decides to murder the baby while it's still in her tummy."

So he ended up with thirty-odd kids staring up at him looking horrified, determinded to write an essay that will stop this horrible baby-killing process.

Just...yeah. The more I look back on it, the more ******** up it is.

Went to a Christian school and dragged into the pro-life side. However, I realized I was being blindsighted... never did they bring up if the guy runs off, she is raped or physically unable to carry to term... I also realized that pro-lifers shut down programs that help prevent circumstances in which abortion is needed and also shut down parenting help.

I am prochoice to protect medical rights and women's rights. Medical decisions are between the patient and the doctor (well the doctor knows but doesn't have much weight in what you say but you get what I'm saying). I don't want a day where I can't get medical treatment for another unrelated procedure because some church or group is morally opposed to it.

Honestly sure I was raised Catholic but they never really said anything about abortion when I was little going to religion classes on Saturdays. Not that I really payed attention. So I really didn't know about it. But I wasn't pro-life. I more or less was against getting pregnant when I was little.

It wasn't until these past couple of years when I heard that the new Justices were going to try and "override" Roe vs Wade and pass along other laws trying to limit almost everything that I pretty much believe in. So I became pro-choice because I feel a women has the right to choose.

I knew about abortion when I was in high school, I don't exactly know where I learned probably with heath or maybe in science. But yeah.

when i first learned what abortion was i didn't really think it was a big deal because i knew the fetus couldn't feel pain/couldn't survuive outside the womb, etc. i'd hear tidbits about pro-life violence and i would always wonder what the big deal was. i thought along the lines of "they're adults, they should know it's not a baby yet". yeah, i was a weird kid. xD

i just figured that abortion wasn't any of my business because i was still really young. then, when i was 16 or so i discovered Gaia and the abortion thread that was going back in '04. i always knew i was pro-choice, and all the information in that thread just solidified my stance on the subject. razz

edit: holy hell, i've been on Gaia for almost 3 1/2 years! O_O;;

Before I became an active Pro-Choicer, I was Pro-Choice, but I didn't know there was an alternative. I honestly didn't understand why people would be against abortion, as a woman's reproductive rights were hers, and hers alone. I thought it was common sense for people to mind their own business. Oh how wrong I was... gonk