Happy Anniversary!

Happy 36th Anniversary Roe v. Wade!

There are two ways of looking at this anniversary - it is either a celebration of a ruling that has helped thousands of women have safe abortions and avoid births that could endanger their lives, or the life/health of the child, or put them in a situation they were simply not ready for. Or, it is a sad reminder of the thousands of children who are not alive today - unwanted, or unhealthy, or orphaned or mistreat or maybe even adopted into a loving home.

Of course I see it as a celebration of a ruling that has helped many women. I know several women who had done their best (outside of abstinence) to avoid pregnancy and had an abortion because they were simply not ready to have children. Some of those women have children now - when they can properly care for them. I do not see a young fetus as a thing with a soul and rights (above mine) that can feel pain etc. The body aborts or miscarries eggs/embryos that are either unhealthy or that the body cannot sustain and this is just a step beyond that.

I wonder if the anti-choice side is all christian. Would any other group mind?

I am currently doing (almost) everything I can to avoid a pregnancy, but I know I am not ready to have a child - I can hardly support myself, and I know I'm not taking as good of care of myself as possible. Should I let a child "mess up" my life? Or change the path I'm on? I have heard people say that if you accidentally get pregnant you should "accept the consequences", but a child is not a punishment and it should be a choice. One should choose to have children if and when ready. If one is not ready I definitely believe you should try your hardest to avoid pregnancy, but there are accidents and tragedies. I do not know how anyone (except Sara Palin) could defend a pregnancy that could cause the death of the mother, or is caused by a crime (rape or incest).

I suppose there are three reasons to support abortion; it is a women's choice, in case of harm to the mother or due to crime, and because there will be abortions regardless of legality. If it were illegal women would continue to have abortions using a variety of methods and some of the women would die or become injured, and some children would be born sick or deformed.

I joke about abortion a lot (because I don't like people joking about me having kids "oh, why don't you have kids? Your life is meaningless without children" "oh, your sick, you must be pregnant, haha") but I would give it serious thought if I did become unintentionally pregnant, and I would not take it lightly and I am sure for most other women it is not any easy out, or a method of birth control.

Perhaps if we improved our sex education in the United States we might experience less unplanned pregnancies. I do not think abstinence only worked for Bristol Palin.

Here is my can of worms. Luckily, not too many people read this so the chance of my being slammed for my opinion is minimal. But, why must it be so emotional and polarizing? I am happy as long as you do not take away my right or the right of other women, and I will allow you to do what you want. I am not forcing you to abort your baby for whatever reason, so why be so angry? I have had a woman tell me that her friends have a baby they love with down's syndrome and if he'd been aborted (something, I forget where she went with that). But, that's ok, allowing other women to choose whether or not to have a child does not stop someone else from having theirs.