Alternet: The Rhetoric of Abortion: Reflections

The Rhetoric of Abortion: Reflections from a Former Pro-life Activist
http://www.alternet.org/stories/42888/

As a sheltered Christian teenager, I thought I knew what was right for all women. But as I gained more life experience and education, I learned the hardest questions don't have easy answers.

This article gives me a smidge of hope...

rethink things when they get that first pregnancy scare. And they will.

without having a scare herself. I didn't expect that.

Ok, my parents were not especially religious. They sent me there mostly for the education and safety, but I still had to sit through all the "morality" lectures, most especially in an all girls school.

I did not need to go out into the world to see that their views on birth control and abortion were, to use my own teenage words, "totally illogical". I could simply look at my own life growing up, and the lives of my friends and their families. I am an only child, by my parents choice. They told me so. Until I was 10 years old, we lived in a one bedroom Manhattan apartment with my Grandma. When people say Manhattan apartments are no bigger than closets, it is no joke. I slept in a sofa bed with my Grandma in the living room. When it was opened, the only way to get to the other side of the room was to walk over the bed. My parents bedroom was even smaller. I did not know any Catholic families growing up who had more than 2 kids. My best friend and her sister had the same sleeping arrangements we did. The sisters slept together in the living room sofa bed.

Now, looking at these living arrangements, how in the world could a family be expected to follow Catholic doctrine and not use birth control? Have as many children as "God decides"? It simply did not follow any logic for our lives.

My views on abortion followed suit. The final straw on that came when I had an ectopic pregnancy in a Catholic hospital. That sealed it for me. The life of a 5 week old embryo was worth more than MY life? Try telling that to my husband and my 3 year old daughter. Once again, not some rhetoric, but real life experience. Given that, I found I could not judge others who may have had even worse personal experiences than I had.

I had to sit through the lectures and propaganda, too. My HS Morality class which we were all required to take, out and out lied to us.

We were taught that no exceptions could ever apply. Period. Life of mother? Thing of the past, women don't die in childbirth anymore. (bullshit, my own mother was told not to have more after me or she'd die, and I knew that before taking that class.)

We were taught that no woman can become pregnant from rape. (Utter bullshit, how does the ova know?)

This last one was on the test. Every girl in class got it wrong because we all knew better.

On the other hand, Science and Religion was a great class with complete and accurate information on every method of contraception available in the 80s.

The one thing that tipped me over from mere questioning to being a pro-choice activist is what happened when I was trying to get through Operation Rescue after seeing the doctor for something unrelated to reproduction. (Women see doctors for other reasons, imagine that!) They blocked my line of sight and I almost was involved in a car crash which could have killed me. I lucked out that the driver who almost hit me was able to see me in time to swerve out of the way.

Killing a female 20 year old clinic patient is OK, but never should you kill a 2 cell blastocyst.