Abortion isn’t always a travesty but is something we need to think long and hard about.
When I was in college, the subject of Termination of a birth was a huge point of debate in Parliament, and it’s one of those Catch 22 scenarios where no one is right or wrong.
I was discussing it with my friend who openly admitted she had, had a termination as soon as she found out she was pregnant. She was a single mother, with 2 kids already, and her and her boyfriend at the time were nothing more than a fling that had begun fizzling before it even sparked into something more serious.
He (I know the man) is also a commitment-phobe and would have made a lousy father due to his immaturity mentally and emotionally, as well as not being able to fund a child. She made that decision on educated grounds. She simply couldn’t afford another child.
Since meeting a guy 7 years ago, she’s got married, and now has 4 children.
I’m also a bit of an HIV advocate, and have heard some harrowing stories, something to put Game of Thrones to shame. On World AIDS Day, 2008, one of the speakers, a lesbian woman from Nigeria, spoke of how she was gang raped, fell pregnant and discovered she had been infected with HIV and other STI’s. Her duty (she felt) was to terminate the pregnancy. For her own health, and for that of the child as HAART isn’t freely available, and would be extremely costly.
She has since gone on to forge a new life in the UK, working, has a girlfriend and is a public speaker on women’s rights.
There was a time where the ‘A’ word, was dirty. But when you think about it, it’s the most difficult decision people can make. From teenagers who got a little too frisky to rape victims, cash strapped workers on minimum wage to the up and coming business greats that can’t afford the time to achieve what they desire. Termination is a gargantuan decision, not a form of birth control, and everyone has their own reasons for doing it.
I’m not Pro Life, but I’m not Pro Abortion either. No one is Pro Abortion, like the Pro Lifers make out.
No one in their right mind says ‘you know what, I’m going to have an abortion’, like they’re debating on whether to order the Pepperoni or the Meat Feast in a pizza place.
It’s no picnic for anyone, the staff involved, who know more than we ever will. The would be parent(s), friends and family (if they’re involved in the process). It really is not a simple choice, and people are making out that anyone who has an abortion is a slut, a slag, a whore. Shaming them for it.
Everyone has their own circumstances, and the vast majority of the time, they don’t think selfishly, they think of the foetus, and the life that they would end up inheriting from their parents.
