How I Came to Terms with Being Pro-Choice

This is something I don't admit very often: I used to be pro-life*. Not in a big, scary, religious way. Not in a slut-shaming, hateful way. In a quiet “I won't kill a clam for food... why is killing a fetus okay?” way. The pro-life liberal is a rare beast, but I used to be one. I couldn't really understand how one can draw a line where what was a fetus becomes a “person” with “rights”. And even long after I accepted the difference between a pre-viability and post-viability fetus... I was still uncomfortable.

Why? I've been a vegetarian since I was 2**. The idea of killing a chicken can actually bring tears to my eyes. Did I ever think chickens deserved the same rights as humans? Never. But I was always uncomfortable with killing... with the death penalty, with animal testing, with war. I was pro-life in that I was against killing, pure and simple.

When I first became pro-choice I thought of abortion as a “necessary evil”, a right that wouldn't be needed if we achieved universal healthcare, birth control, education, maternity leave, childcare, and other social supports. I saw abortion as a symptom of our system, where having a child means losing education, jobs and familial supports and where feeding an unexpected child can be too difficult. And while those concerns are still valid, I know now that the right to an abortion needs to be inalienable and permanent.

And there's only one way I've figured out how to explain it. Someone, somewhere in the world today desperately needs a kidney transplant and I'm their match. I have a spare kidney. Going through surgery to donate it would have it's dangers and complications, but I'd have a very good chance of making it through. It would be traumatic, and painful, but I could give that person life. I could choose to get on the donor list, and maybe I should.

But would you force me to? Would you tell me that in order to give this man life I had to give my kidney, no matter how I felt about it? That it was my duty to give up my body to a complicated, traumatic procedure with marked health risks because otherwise I'd be “killing” someone else?

What if you said that in order to not have my body violated by this surgery I'd have to drive across the state, stare at a photograph of the man who needs the transplant, and then “think about it” for 24 hours? What if I had to pay $500 to get out of this transplant? What if I had people screaming “murderer” at me because I refused?

It doesn't actually matter if you think the fetus counts as a “human” or not. Forcing a person to put their body in danger & their life on hold to preserve the life of another is immoral in and of itself. It doesn't matter how they ended up pregnant. It matters that they don't want to damage their bodies (and potentially their lives) for a fetus, no matter what it's potential.

Would I have an abortion? No. Like I explained, the idea of killing a chicken makes me cry. But that's the point – I am pro-CHOICE. And I think that whether or not pregnant women choose to continue their pregnancies, they need to be fully supported in that decision. That's why I don't just believe in universally available & free abortion. I also believe in free childcare, mandatory maternity leave, and a food stamps program large enough to ensure no child ever goes hungry. I think adoption needs to lose it's stigma and foster care needs to be fixed and schools need to give world class educations to all students, not just those with wealthy home & school clubs.

But I also believe that the right to bodily autonomy is an absolute. And that means abortion needs to be a RIGHT. Forever.

* Disclaimer: I was 12-16 at the time... so cut me a little slack.

** Yes, really. I also began reading graphic anti-vivisection literature at age 6, had my “Angry Atheist” phase at age 8, began obsessively following election cycles at 11 and became a Pagan before my 13^th birthday. It's a weird thing.