FOCA

Abortion is a pretty hot topic these days. Everyone seems to have an opinion about it and it's too easy to say something that could be skewed the wrong way. The opportunities to sound politically incorrect or ignorant or intolerant are innumerable. I recognize that and I can see it being a risk in expressing my own feelings. But heck, I'm going for it.

I am opposed to abortion. I believe it is morally wrong. There are situations where I believe it can be acceptable, such as in cases of rape, or if a mother's life is in danger, etc. There are the two main sides: pro-life and pro-choice. Such nice little nick-names to attempt to encompass whole schools of thought. I remember being sixteen or seventeen and seeing a pro-choice commercial and thinking: "yeah, abortion is bad, but women should be able to CHOOSE." But I don't think I understood all of the implications. It seems that sometimes with this idea of "pro-choice" there is the desire to shirk responsibility. To have sex without consequences, for there to be some sort of "way out." And I know there's a feminist view: women should have this right because they're the ones that get pregnant, men can just do what they want without being responsible--they're never going to have to carry and raise a child and put their bodies through that trauma. It's not fair. It's not equal. It's not right. Yes, I've heard that and I even consider myself to be a bit of a feminist too. But to me that seems to go against some truths that are both very real and cannot be ignored. Men and women were created differently. Our bodies have different capabilities. Women can carry and bear children. Man cannot. That difference does not make women in any way inferior or superior to men, but it does mean that there is a responsibility they have to accept and deal with. Abortion is not a way of dealing with that responsibility. It's shirking it. And what's more, it's negating the importance and worth of life. Perhaps it is not fair that women cannot have sex without seeming "responsibilities," but nor is it fair to take the life of someone too young, too fragile and unable to defend and choose for itself. Life is precious. Perhaps we treat the power we have to create or destroy life too lightly.

FOCA is an act that would get rid of virtually all restrictions on abortion. That's something that I cannot and will not support. Like I said, I believe there are cases in which abortion can be permissible. But to take away all restrictions? That doesn't feel like freedom, it feels like an attempt to not accept consequences, to not deal with hard things.

I've never been in a situation where I've had to make a decision about abortion and I have no intention of ever being in one. I don't understand what it's like to be there. But I am a woman. I know I have the responsibility of having a body that can carry and bear life. And I am pro-life.