No Uterus, No Vote

Growing up in public school I was in French Immersion, and starting at the age of 11 every year every kid in the class had to get up in front of the class and give a speech, in French, no less. I was a twitchy little ball of energy at no more than 40 lbs. I spoke too quickly, let my eyes dart all over the classroom instead of keeping them steady, and flipped through my cue cards distractingly. But I was ambitious! The topic I chose for my first public speech: abortion. After sitting down with my mother to do some research (she’s a nurse,) I decided to write out the speech from both points of view of the argument: life and choice. And then I wrote the speech and delivered it to a class of thirty-two students as quickly as possible, concluding that, in my opinion, choice was the more understanding alternative. It was, in essence, my first five-minute Op-Ed piece ever. And I was proud of it, despite the poor delivery. But when I sat back down at my desk, the little boy next to me gave me a disgusted sideways look and said, “Baby-killer.”

The next year, I decided I would give a speech on Golden Retrievers instead.

So now Roe is hoping to overturn Roe vs. Wade and there is a push to debunk three abortion myths – these myths being:

1) Abortion is a woman’s issue.
2) Repealing Roe would take us back to women dying from back alley abortions.
3) Legalized abortion means safe abortion.

You know what? I’m not an eleven year old anymore. I’m approaching twenty-eight. I have a firmer grasp on public speaking and the art and craft of debate. I’m not nearly as easily wounded by the black-label of baby-killer as I was way back then. And I am still decidedly Pro-Choice. So let’s begin.

1. Abortion is a woman’s issue. Yes it is. YES IT IS! If you don’t have a uterus, then you will never know what it’s like for something to live and grow inside you. You will never have to give birth. You will never have to breastfeed. You just won’t! Last time I checked, men didn’t have wombs. They may have a point of view on the subject, but they don’t have a uterus, so at best it is only an opinion based on second-hand reports, not first-hand experience. Too bad. That’s the way the biology works. Abortion, like birth-control, is a woman’s issue.

Heterosexual copulation in its simplest form, for men, can be brief and can bear no consequences whatsoever to the rest of their lives. For women, not so much. At its best, sex can be exhilarating, pleasurable and addicting, even. At its worst, it is awkward, uncomfortable, intimidating and physically violent. And only the woman bears the risk of pregnancy following the act. And so, the true responsibility for contraception will always come back to the woman. And when the act of sex has been physically imposed upon the woman, well then the fear she experiences while waiting to see if her egg has been unwillingly fertilized is a terror all her own.

Abortion is a woman’s issue. Do men get to have a say in the matter? Sure they do – I’m a Canadian, but I sure as hell have my opinion about American politics. I just don’t get a vote. The same principle ought hold true here.

2/3. I’m tackling “myths” two and three in one shot here, because if you look at it, three is really a corollary of two and not all that distinctly different. Repealing Roe would make abortion illegal but it would in no way affect the need out there for abortion. There would still be young, confused pregnant women out there needing information and choices and some of them would still choose abortion. Repealing Roe would make the procedure a black-market commodity. That there is an argument out there that statistics of back-alley abortion deaths were inflated or even fabricated is irrelevant.

Making abortion illegal does not make it go away, just like making drugs illegal does not make them go away, or making prostitution illegal does not make it go away. It simply creates a counter-culture that needs to be policed instead of regulated. And that counter-culture will inevitably be more dangerous than a legal alternative would. Legalized abortion doesn’t necessarily mean safe abortion. It’s a medical procedure and carries with it some risks of lasting damage to the body and infection. But a medical doctor will presumably go through these risks with the patient in detail, and a medical doctor will presumably be more familiar with these risks than a black-market dealer. Making the procedure legal means that those who perform it would have to be trained, educated and regulated. And when it comes to your health, that is so much more preferable to the alternative.

Choice means exactly that. It means you have a choice between options. It means you have the opportunity to educate yourself. It means you get to look at both sides of the equation and figure out what’s best for you. It doesn’t advocate abortion. It doesn’t use the slogan “Abortion is the new birth control.” It says nothing about promiscuity, or whether all life is welcome, or heaven and hell. Pro-life, in sharp contrast, is a black-and-white condemnation of an often frightened pregnant woman looking for understanding and options. Taking the right to choose away from the woman assumes that she does not have the capacity to make the right decision for herself and an unborn fetus. And that does no one any good.