So I Have Something I Want To Say, And I Think It's Something Both Pro-life And Pro-choice People Can

So I have something I want to say, and I think it's something both pro-life and pro-choice people can and should agree on.

It's this: Women deserve better than abortion.

Now stay with me, please. There is this charity that I love, called Let Them Live, and they open their doors and fundraisers to moms in need, raising enough money and giving them all the support they require to confidently choose life. And that's beautiful -- I think people on both sides can agree on that.

The thing is, the stories these moms in need tell strike stunningly similar notes, over and over again.

"I don't want to abort my baby, but I'm so scared of being homeless."

"I would never choose abortion, but my life is too unstable/dangerous because of an abusive partner to choose life."

"I want to keep my baby, but no one in my family is supporting me."

"It breaks my heart to abort, but my partner/family is pressuring me into it."

"I'm scared."

"I'm alone."

"I'm unsafe."

"I'm jobless."

"I'm about to be evicted."

Doesn't it break your heart? What happened to the world that we now look at these women in dire straits, who often have children already and say, "The answer is abortion." Over and over, these women are told by society, by family members, by partners, and by friends that the answer to their problems is to deny every maternal instinct and subject themselves to a dangerous medical procedure that snuffs out the small life growing inside them.

Is this really what the pro-choice side is fighting for? I have spoken to many pro choice people in my time... They hold their beliefs because they see abortion as crucial to women's rights, to feminism, and to female safety. But is it really? Does it empower women at all when we tell them that to be free and on an equal level with men they have to get an abortion -- an invasive and potentially life threatening procedure? Does it keep them safe when abortions are continually used to destroy the evidence of rape, of incest, and of forced prostitution? When abortion itself can be and has been lethal? When the battle for abortion rights contributes to the misconception that abortion is ever necessary to save a pregnant woman's life, to the point where doctors become negligent? Does it further feminism to elevate the rights of one group of people (women) over the rights of another (unborn girls and boys) and create another kind of oppression? I don't think it does. When I look at the stories of the women who come to Let Them Live, desperate and alone, I become more convinced than ever that abortion hurts. It does not help.

The pro-life side often focuses on the unborn's right to life -- as they should! They fight their battles with biological facts about conception and gestation. They bring truth to the table by describing the reality of abortion procedures and laying out statistics regarding abortion that put a lie to many of the common arguments for it. And that is good.

But I think we need to emphasize another facet of the argument.

Abortion is stupid.

Abortion is a stupid, violent solution to a systemic problem. Ask yourselves this: when did we get so lazy and so disconnected from our communities that the main solution to a desperate or frightened mother's unplanned pregnancy was to abandon her to an abortion clinic? To a cold room, to forceps that rip her baby apart, to saline injections that poison her baby, to pills that starve her baby.

Abortion doesn't solve poverty.

Abortion doesn't stop abuse.

Abortion doesn't heal trauma.

Abortion doesn't make society and careers more hospitable to mothers.

Abortion doesn't stop misogyny.

Abortion doesn't prevent rape.

Abortion doesn't spread love.

For many of this things, abortion actually perpetuates them.

We spend so much time as a culture fighting over abortion! One side (rightly) hates it, and the other upholds it as the salvation of women.

And while this disagreement spins on, moms are hurt. Abuse is covered up. Poverty is rampant. Little girls have their innocence stolen. Instead of a culture of life, there is a culture of death.

Abortion is stupid. It is lazy. It is a symptom of the problem; not the solution to it. It gives people an excuse to blame women for their struggles, rather than helping them. Rather than gathering these women into the arms of a community and promising that, yes, of course we will help, abortion lets us believe that the best help we can give is making them an appointment and driving them to an abortion clinic. Don't tell me that doesn't happen. We all know it does.

Do all people refuse to help? Of course not! Pro life and pro choice individuals alike reach out to these women, and that is wonderful. We need more of that.

But society as a whole? It still calls for death. It empowers the strong, not the vulnerable. Imagine a world without abortion gumming up the works, where communities surrounded mothers who needed help. Where workplaces gave adequate maternity leave and better maternal health insurance. Where abortion could no longer serve as an excuse for the people who will abuse their power or make lazy policy decisions.

Companies like Disney will pay for an abortion, but will they shell out the considerably larger amount of money necessary for proper maternity leave and for adequate health insurance? Of course not! Not when they have an easier, cheaper option. Abortion gives them that option. Abortion gives fathers a way to avoid paying child support and taking responsibility. Abortion gives abusers a way to hide. Abortion gives pimps a way to maximize their profits. Abortion gives society yet another way to shuffle mothers aside and disrespect all that they do.

So. Is abortion helpful? Is it feministic? No. We can do better. We have to do better, for the sake of the thousands upon thousands of moms who need our help.

Abortion is stupid. It's a bad solution. Come on, everyone. We're smarter than this.