Happy 35th Anniversary of Roe V. Wade!
This year we are supposed to be blogging about why it's important to vote in support of pro-choice. My answer? Because I'm a big fan of me being considered a full human being under the law as opposed to a possible incubator.
I made a conscious decision to have the soon-to-be-baby that I'm carrying. I considered having an abortion, but I chose not to because of my current circumstances. HB is an amazing person who I am overjoyed to be having a kid with. I believe he will be a wonderful father even if our relationship ends up not working out. I have a very supportive family who are also very excited about the forthcoming progeny. HB and I aren't in the best of places financially (this being the biggest worry) but I believe that we can work it out and persevere regardless. Most of all I felt ready to have this kid. That was the biggest deciding factor, had I not felt ready I wouldn't be eagerly awaiting the delivery (seriously could it happen soon! I'm sick of all this strain on my body).
Betsy a commentor at Feministe pointed out this wonderful tidbit,
Reason #11, if I may be so bold: so that when a woman chooses to bring an unplanned pregnancy to term, as a friend of mine recently did, she owns and takes responsibility for that decision. Because she knew she could have an abortion if she wanted, she is making the choice to be a responsible, loving parent to the child that she is going to bring into the world, rather than a resentful, unwilling mother.I totally agree with what she posted and replied with as much in a comment. I do feel that having the option to not bring this pregnancy to term impacted how I felt about it. In knowing that it was a choice to not continue to term, I feel at peace with my decision. Had it not been a choice, I fear that I may have resented it and not been able to be as happy as I am about this. Being pregnant has made me more pro-choice than before. I have had a relatively uncomplicated pregnancy, and shit has it been taxing. Knowing what it is to go through a pregnancy has made me completely unwilling to agree in any way that it should be anything but the woman's choice and an easily available option to obtain an abortion if that is what she wants. To force someone to go through this, not to mention the delivery is beyond the pale and to wave adoption about as some kind of easy alternative is nothing short of outright stupidity and unwillingness to see how many shades of gray there are to this world.
For a more political look at Roe V. Wade please check out these great bloggers, (I will try to update this as I find them but so far it's just these)
Cara at The Curvature
Jill at Feministe
Miriam at Radical Doula
Amanda at Pandagon
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