The battle inside my soul about abortion has been going on since Junior High. That is when I was really heavy into Jesus and youth group. Naturally I learned to believe that abortion was wrong. We never told why it was wrong, only that you never got one or were in the position where that would be a necessary procedure you were automatically a sinner.

I am thankful I never got pregnant during high school, I had a scare or two and I would have had a tough choice to make. A 16 year old with a baby growing up in an abusive family would not have fared well.

I always considered myself pro-choice. Meaning that I don’t know if I personally could have an abortion but I do not believe it’s the governments right to tell me what I can and cannot do with my body.
When I became a Christian it was automatically assumed that I would switch sides and become a pro choice advocate. In the house I lived in they constantly used my story to show that keeping the baby is possible, that you don’t have to have an abortion.

Yet the way I heard these women talk about it and how they would talk to the women they counseled it was almost forceful. Like “you have to keep this baby or else” Yet they didn’t offer much hope for after the baby was born.
There was always an uncomfortable feeling in my chest when I thought about abortion. I knew in my spirit that what I was hearing was wrong but wanted so badly to please God and others that I went along with their anti abortion rhetoric. I “knew I needed to be pro life”
For some being pro life is about saving the babies. I understand that, I really do. When their only motive is to save the baby but then leaves the mother high and dry by cutting her benefits; how pro life is that?

Those that support the death penalty are often pro life when it comes to babies. I know there are several arguments about innocence versus guilt but to me if you’re going to claim prolife status then it must carry across the board.
There are too many children being born into households that cannot always afford them. And before you start the birth control topic, it’s even expensive at Planned Parenthood.

I believe there are so many other things so that we as believers can grow together and not be so divisive on this issue.

There are several things that will help (I don’t have exact statistics or numbers) lower the number of abortions and help raise healthy families and healthy children.
There needs to be a much more comprehensive education about sex. Abstinence only doesn’t work. It becomes a white knuckle battle to get to the altar. Many people getting married these days are young and inexperienced when it comes to sex. Either they didn’t get a proper education at home or the school taught it in such a text book way that the information wasn’t always accurate. I also know from several home schooling families that they don’t teach comprehensive sex ed. Instead demanding they stay pure as they hear at home about being a sinner for premarital sex.

Where I stand right now is being pro-woman, pro education and access to birth control. People (teenagers) are going to have sex if they want to, regardless of their faith or not. The least that can be done is to educate them and make sure they have the access to birth control and STD testing as much as possible.
I wonder if the more education that is provided to teens and women at a higher risk of having an abortion would change anything. It would make sense to be that if there was better access to WIC, food stamps, low income childcare and birth control. I tend to believe that those things would reduce the number of abortions.
I honestly do not think Roe v Wade will ever be overturned. As a woman, a feminist and a rape survivor I stand by each woman’s choice to do what she feels necessary for herself. Domestic violence rates go up among pregnant woman as do murders.
Then there was the personhood movement trying to get voted in. It sounded great on the surface but as you read deeper a woman could lose her baby an go to jail for using. Not that I agree with that at all but if that personhood amendment were to pass it would keep women who are pregnant and addicted from seeking treatment.

I know women who have had abortions and it has wrecked them for a long time. I also know women who’ve had abortions that, though they are sad and remorseful they have been able to move on knowing that they made the right choice.

It’s not a choice that I would ever want to make. When I found out I was pregnant with Abigail, abortion never crossed my mind. If I had been in a different situation or if I hadn’t truly believed that my life was going to change I might have looked at other options.

The truth is that each side can battle about abortion until they are blue in the face but nothing is going to change unless our sex ed programs change, we drop abstinence only education and make birth control more accessible.
I believe that the number of abortions would drop if those things were mandated at school and if parents would step up and be honest. That’s mostly directed towards the Christian purity culture that makes sex seem dangerous until one is married.
Poverty plays a big part in this battle. The very people who need the benefits or the raise in minimum wage are the very same people who contemplate abortion. I am not saying its right or wrong. I am not anti choice and I struggle with identifying as pro life because in the evangelical world it’s just about the baby.
I won’t vote against Roe v Wade because I think that it helped make strides for women in claiming choice over their own bodies. It also gave us the right to stand up for ourselves. I want to believe that the hope back then was “I don’t have to let a man decide my future”

I know we still live in a male dominate world however I think some amazing stride have been made by females, and males alike.

I hope that these strides continue, I hope that women all over the world will stand up and say enough is enough. We have so many strong, female leaders right now that it gives me hope for my daughters generation.

As Always,
Bethany

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