Let's talk about abortion.
I see many of you out there cringe, gasp, or begin to sharpen your pitchforks.
Relax. Breathe. And for goodness sake, put away your pitchfork!
I am not here to argue!
Instead I want to address something that I've heard women from both sides of this issue complain about:
The fact that we can't have an honest, nuanced discussion about abortion.
What do I mean by that?
I mean that abortion is not a black and white issue - no matter how much you want it to be. It's complicated. It's something that takes a huge physical, mental, and emotional toll on women. It's not always right or wrong.
Abortion is health care. You can argue morality of choices, but you can't deny that abortion is an important part of health care for women.
Let's take a look at the Webster's dictionary definition of abortion:
Abortion:
The termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus: such as
a. spontaneous expulsion of a human fetus during the first 12 weeks of gestation
b. induced expulsion of a human fetus
Basically, any pregnancy that is terminated without resulting in a living human is considered abortion. Two things that surprise many about the definition of abortion are:
Miscarriage is technically abortion.
Abortions can happen AFTER a fetus has already died.
In other words, abortions can happen without the mental consent of the mother (the body does what it needs to do,) and not all abortions kill the fetus (if the fetus has already died.)
How many of us women (myself included) have had a miscarriage and cringed when the doctor referred to it as a spontaneous abortion? The word abortion has become such an evil word that even when it happens through no fault of our own, we are left feeling like we did something wrong.
How many women are faced with a difficult and devastating decision that is made so much worse by the harsh judgments of society?
These are situations that can happen to all women - no matter what side of the issue of abortion they are on.
I hear people shout about how many babies are aborted each year - but they never differentiate between the types of abortions. Was it medically necessary? Was the baby viable? Was it intentional? Was the mother a victim of rape? Does that number include miscarriages?
These are the nuances of abortion that we either don't want to discuss or we want to ignore completely. That makes an already dangerous and difficult situation even more dangerous and difficult.
When people lump all abortions together as murder, I get frustrated. And surprisingly, I found many pro-life women do as well.
Women on both sides of the issue are tired of the political talking points about abortion. They want to have a true discussion about the real issues surrounding this difficult subject. Ignoring certain truths of this complex issue is only putting lives at risk.
Imagine if we could have a nuanced discussion about abortion. Imagine if we could come together to make health care better for mothers and infants. Imagine if we could treat women, not as selfish people, but as the amazing humans they are - after all, women risk their lives every day to bring children into this world.
This is a complicated issue and it's one we could make better if we could just have an honest discussion.
- Amy Young
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