I wrote the following just before the last federal election. Sent it to newspapers, but no one touched it. So here it finds a place to be heard...maybe:


"A woman’s right to choose."
Now that the subject of abortion has once again reared it’s head in the latest federal election we hear that phrase bleated over and over again by seemingly mindless sheep following their politically correct shepherds. ""A woman’s right to choose. Baaaa. A woman’s right to choose. Baaaa."
I find it quite repugnant that an important philosophical and moral debate has been reduced to a cute catch phrase.
A while back someone was trying to change my position on abortion. I asked her if she knew what a D&X abortion was. She said no. I asked her if she wanted to. She said no. That is the mindset that plagues much of the pro-choice worldview. It is one that trumpets slogans but averts it’s eyes from the realities of the situation.
The terminology used is one of the most blatant examples of this. Terms have been coined, such as "products of conception" and "uterine contents" that mask the true nature of what an abortion does. We rarely talk this way when we want to have understanding of what is growing and thriving in the womb. You don’t hear parents tell their children that mommy has a product of conception inside of her. Nobody says, "Oh, my uterine contents just kicked." These terms conjure up images that do not match with the reality of what the unborn look like and how well-developed they are.
But terminology is employed to distort truth. While we can argue endlessly of whether of not these little ones (this is what "fetus" means) are truly people, we cannot argue that they are indeed human (they have the DNA to prove it).
Abortion kills a human. That is not an opinion, that is a fact. And as thinking and feeling are not suddenly bestowed on a child in the birth process, abortion kills humans who experience fear and pain in the process. We don’t even allow our pets to be put down in such a heartless manner.
Abortion creates the ethical dilemma between one’s right to control her own body and another’s right to live. Society desires to ignore the latter side of the equation and pretend that abortion is only about the former. The reason the "right to choose" has won out is not because of any moral or philosophical superiority. It has won out because the unborn are unseen and cannot speak for themselves. It has won out because, like Gollum with the ring, "We wants it." We are not comfortable with the dilemma, so we pretend it doesn’t exist. But it does exist. It is morally inexcusable to only consider one human’s rights, especially when the cost to the other human is so high. It is extremely disrespectful to women to mask this dilemma in rhetoric rather than encourage them to consider the moral implications of their decisions. And it says very little of us as a society that we do little discussion of this with thoughtfulness and intelligence, acknowledging all the facts that are involved in the issue. Instead, we resort to endlessly chanting slogans that sound nice.
The one way the dilemma can be resolved and both humans’ rights upheld simultaneously is for women to choose to let the unborn live. Yet we are hesitant to encourage this as the best option. Women are frequently not given the full facts of the nature of the unborn and the possible physical and emotional repercussions of abortion. Waiting times or mandatory counselling are seen as an affront to women’s rights. Women who release for adoption are encouraged to carefully consider their options and the possible negative consequences. There are waiting times to help them make sure they are making the best decision for them. Women who abort have no such legal protection. Abortion is treated simply as a medical procedure and the relationship with the one within is ignored.
I think women deserve better. I think they deserve to know the truth about the unborn and about abortion. I think they deserve to have people who encourage them to wrestle through the moral issues rather than gloss over them with abortion rights semantics. I think women are strong enough to be challenged to make decisions that benefit more than just themselves. I think society should quit sticking it’s head in the sand, stop spouting platitudes and face up to what abortion is about. It’s not as clear-cut as a simple right to choose, and it’s time we stop pretending that it is.