I wasn't always pro-choice. There was a time in high school and my freshmen year of college that I was pro-life. I'm pretty sure that when I was in high school I would have protested in front of Planned Parenthood had I been given the choice. I had these bumper stickers that I had bought from some Pennsylvanian's for pro-life group. One said, "Pro- choice that's a lie babies don't choose to die." The other one had a picture of a baby seal holding a baby human and it said "Save the baby humans." I am still ashamed that I gave these people $2. I was pro-life because I was taught that it was murder. There was some scripture that went with what I was taught but I never actually knew what that was scripture was. I was pro-life because everyone I knew was pro-life. Then I got really sick. Really sick. And everything changed. I remember sitting in the doctors office being told that I had stage I endometriosis but that I would need surgery to remove the growths. So I had the surgery and the growths came back and I was diagnosed with stage II endometriosis. I was told that if I ever became pregnant that it would be dangerous for me and for the fetus. To make a very long story short I was told at the age of twenty that I would not be able to have children without potentially dying. Not what I wanted to hear at twenty. I was also told at twenty that I would need have a hysterectomy, thankfully that has not happened yet, but I am sure that one day it will. As I was walking out of the office, an old lady came up to me and said, "You made the choice to get pregnant now you have to deal with it." Because apparently in her world the only reason for a twenty year old to be at the OBs office was because she was pregnant. Her words hurt. Not only because I knew that I would never be able to have my own children but because, they were words I had said before. Words that I had said when I gave a speech in 8th grade on why abortion should be illegal. I realized how much of an ass I had been. I know that I cannot go back in time and not give that speech, but even I could I wouldn't. My past as crazy as it has been has made me into the socialist feminist christian human rights activist that I am today. I was wrong with what I believed. I had been lied to by the adults in my life and I did not know the facts. But I do now. Abortion is not murder. Women who choose to have abortions are not bad people. Women who are pro-life are not bad people. I am not a bad person, a bad woman because I cannot have children. It is not my duty as a woman to have children. It is my duty as a woman to fight for the rights of women everywhere. It is my duty to fight to end the war on women. I have learned that pro-choice does not mean that I believe that abortion should be used in place of contraception I have learned that my being pro-choice means that if I ever need to I can legally have a safe abortion in a doctors office and not in a back alley with a hanger.
Planned Parenthood is not a "murder factory". In fact Planned Parenthood saves lives by providing health care for women. Planned Parenthood is a vital part of the fabric of American Society and I fear the day that the government cuts funding for it.
Also because it is still February I felt that this needed to be included.
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233
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