Words Matter: I’m not anti-choice!

I remember the first time I heard the term “anti-choice”. I was in college around 2000 and my art history teacher used it. I wanted to walk out but I just sat there and fumed. When did it change? The two camps had always been Pro-Choice and Pro-Life. I wasn’t in the Pro-Life camp as of yet.  I certainly wasn’t in the other camp either, based on my traumatic abortion experience.

When of this term “anti-choice”, it is very powerful, because it gives the message that these people want to oppress our liberties. It’s un-American. I think, that doesn’t really define me. I am American, I believe in self-determination, I like choices, lots of choices! But, when the choice is to take another human beings life, that’s just not mine, or your choice to make.

Am I Pro-Life? Yep, I think that does define me. Life should be protected at every stage. The weakest among us especially, should be carefully guarded.

Am I Pro-Choice? Not of course in the way our culture understands it, but yes, I believe that we should have choices, just not choices over other human beings lives. In a future post, I will explore the contradictions of the "Pro-Choice" camps, I think they give just enough information so that women make  the choice to abort.

Some of the other terms used in reference to whether you think abortion is ok or not: anti-life, pro-abort, etc. I used to think, how could anyone be pro-abort? Isn’t it supposed to be safe, legal and rare? Well, it’s big business. At an average of $450.00 a hit, at 1.2 million a year, you can see that the dollars add up very quickly. Money talks, babies die, and mothers are wounded for the rest of their life.

I just read an article about the creator of Grey’s Anatomy recent episode where a character had an abortion. The creator of Grey’s Anatomy sits on the board of Planned Parenthood, the nations largest abortion provider. Clever little commercial. By the way, it’s interesting to note that Greys Anatomy and Planned Parenthood have the same demographic – young women under the age of 30. It’s big business, make no mistake.

Words matter, they draw images in our mind and bring us to conclusions regarding liberty, fairness and patriotism. So when you call me anti-choice, let me just say that is not a fair assessment of who I am.

Choice

Don’t talk to me about choice
You have nothing to say to me about choice
Until YOU have had a baby’s life ripped from your womb
You with your mantra – “my body, my choice”
Then why? Why aren’t more women standing up and saying it?
“I had an abortion and I’m glad of it!”
You don’t hear it because it doesn’t happen
We kill our babies because of your lies
And then are left in the shadows of shame and silence
Afraid and alone
Unable to speak of the horror
Of our choice
To hire an assassin
To kill our own child
“Stop crying, it’s too late now.”
An order! A lament…
How many mothers’ tears haunt you in your sleep?
How many mothers’ cries wake you up at night in a cold, hard sweat?
So don’t you dare talk to ME about choice
You don’t know shit about choice
You claim “my body, my choice”
And in your words
is the blood of my child
Of my grandchild
And of millions of others
You claim that you stand for women
Then why? Why are we crying in the shadows?
Why are we alone, afraid and ashamed?
Where are you after the killing is over?
My body, my choice
Then who? Who will cry for our babies?
Just me, alone, anonymous, ashamed but not silent.