It’s no secret that America hates abortion.
Despises them, and if they could get rid of them, they would no doubt.
90! And we are only halfway through the year!
While abortion is still technically legal, most states in the U.S. are continuously passing these restrictions that intentionally make it harder for women (and people who have uteruses) to access abortion, all the while criminalizing it.
I find all of the political debate and stigma around abortion to be unnecessary and ridiculous!
I do not understand why a country that prides itself on personal freedoms defines this one topic as something that needs to be controlled.
Apparently, it is not up to the person whose body and health are at stake but up to the bible-thumping politicians clearly cheating on their wives and have definitely had their mistresses get abortions.
The question that I am going to try to answer in today’s post is, why does America hate abortions?
Like everything in the U.S., it is a multifaceted question with layers that need to be peeled back.
Disclaimer: If you don’t want to read about abortions and political debates and just came for the sex tips, then I suggest you click on any other tab.
Definition of Abortion
Now you all know how much I love my definitions.
They make sure that everyone is on the same page.
An abortion is defined as a medical procedure used to terminate an existing unwanted or unplanned pregnancy by the use of medication or surgery.
Abortion Procedures
There are two different ways to end a pregnancy, and it all depends on where you are in the pregnancy (think in terms of weeks).
The first method is Medication Abortion, aka the Abortion Pill.
Women who are pregnant up to 10 weeks take the abortion pill to cause an early miscarriage.
Then women who are pregnant 10 weeks up to 24 weeks take the abortion pill, which “causes the womb to contract and push out the pregnancy.”
When taking the abortion pill, there is no surgery or anesthetic involved.
The second method is Surgical Abortion.
There are two different types of surgical abortions, but both are quick, minor procedures.
The first procedure is the Vacuum Aspiration.
This happens at 15 weeks of pregnancy, and the fetus is “removed by gentle suction and done with a local anesthetic.“
The second procedure is called Dilatation and Evacuation.
The procedure happens between 15 to 24 weeks of pregnancy, and the doctors use narrow forceps and gentle suction to remove the fetus.
It’s not a pretty picture, but it is what it is.
Roe vs. Wade
Now we can’t talk about the right to have an abortion without referencing the landmark that secured that right.
Roe vs. Wade is the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case that “declared that access to a safe and legal abortion is a constitutional right,”
thus making abortion legal in all 50 states.
And it has been challenged ever since.
While abortion is legal all over the U.S., different states have different rules about abortions.
As I stated in the beginning, many states are passing legislation to make it damn near impossible for people to have access to safe abortions.
They do this by executing laws that have time limits on when you can have an abortion, raise the cost of the procedures, and not let federal funding go to family planning clinics to help patients pay for their abortions (aka the Hyde Amendment).
But more on that later.
Why Do People Have Abortions
While I think “who in their right mind would want to have kids,” other people are thinking, “who in their right mind would want to have an abortion?”
Well, people have abortions for a variety of reasons but let’s go over the main ones.
Can’t Afford It
Having a child is expensive.
The average cost of a child per year is approximately a quarter of a million dollars.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t have that at the moment. And 42% of women who seek abortions already live below the federal poverty line.
Birth Control Failed
No birth control method prevents pregnancy 100%.
Even the best method has a 94% success rate.
Condoms break, you miss a pill, your IUD falls out, life happens.
That doesn’t mean you should be punished for being human.
On this note, many sexually active adults don’t even have access to proper contraceptives (but that’s a topic for a later time).
Rape or Incest
Unfortunately, this is part of our society.
Girls as young as 12 (even younger) are being taken advantage of by people they thought they could trust.
You cannot sit there and tell me that a 12-year-old should be forced to carry and birth a child when she is still a child herself.
To be forced to have the child of someone who took away your power and be reminded of what happened to you is inhumane.
Do Not Want It
There are more people every day choosing not to have children, and that’s okay!
Having a child is a personal decision that no one should make for you.
So why would pro-choice groups want children to be born to parents who do not want it?
The child may experience lots of resentment and anger from the parent who never wanted them in the first place.
Not Fit To Be Parents
Like I said, having a child is a personal decision, and many people who become pregnant do not have the mental or emotional capacity to be a parent.
Being a parent is a full-time job that requires you to be on at all times while maintaining patience and respect.
How many children are being abused on a daily or dealing with alcoholics or drug addicts as parents?
Or how many are tossed aside because the parents do not even want to acknowledge their existence.
Pro-Life Argument
Now, I like to consider myself an open-minded individual.
I like to hear both sides of the story before judging.
So I did just that.
I researched the pro-life, anti-abortion side of the debate.
One day, I will create a post debunking all of the arguments used in the pro-life crusade, but I will stick to the main three that I hear all the time.
The Bible
First of all, separation of Church and State. What the hell happened to that? It’s in our Bill of Rights (check the Establishment Clause).
Second of all, not everyone believes in the Bible, and it’s unjust to force your beliefs onto other people and use it to manipulate them into doing what you want.
The Bible may be right for you and how you live your life, but that doesn’t mean everyone needs to play by those rules.
Life Begins at Conception
There is no scientific proof to back up this claim but what this argument is stating is that a fertilized embryo has more of a right to live than the person who is carrying it?
How fair is that?
They are not conscious, live human beings.
They are clusters of cells that do not think or feel—the person carrying the group of cells in the live human being.
Adoption or Foster Care
First of all, women are not incubators.
We should not have to carry children because we can.
What kind of logic is that?
No one should force anyone to go through the hassle of being pregnant and giving birth unless they want to.
It’s not one woman’s responsibility to have a child because another woman can’t.
Pregnancy is hazardous and comes with so many different side effects; plus, the amount of women that die giving birth is crazy!
There are more complications associated with pregnancy and childbirth than with abortion.
Furthermore, the adoption and foster care system is a mess!
As of September 2019, there are over 400,000 kids in the foster care system!
These children are more likely to experience abuse and mental illnesses at higher rates.
The psychological distress they have to endure impacts them throughout their whole life!
Pro-Lifers argue for the rights of a cluster of cells but don’t keep the same energy once the cluster of cells is born into a hostile situation.
They argue that we should deal with the “consequences” of having sex as if having sex is something that needs to be punished and controlled instead of celebrated!
The pro-life crusaders need to worry about the lives that are actually out in the world.
Not the ones that don’t even know that they exist.
Pro-Choice Argument
Now I identify as pro-choice.
My body, my choice.
I don’t tell you how to live your life, and you stay out of mine.
No governmental or religious authority should limit a person’s decision to have an abortion.
Abortion has been around for decades, but because it’s not pretty or doesn’t go with the country’s family values, people want to get rid of it.
And the sad part is that by abolishing safe abortions, people will resort to unsafe methods.
Abortions won’t stop, but maternal mortality rates will go up.
The number of people who need assistance from the government will go up.
What happened to the freedom to make your own choices regarding your body?
The pro-choice argument includes other parts, such as helping women feel empowered and helping them take control of their lives, but the slogan “my body, my choice” really encompasses the message.
You have the right to make confident decisions about your body, and outside sources should not influence those choices.
Related Article: The Fundamentals of Owning A Vagina
Political Debate
Politicians say that they are fighting for the lives of unborn children and that abortions are wrong because we are children of God, and blah, blah, blah.
I wish in their efforts to control women’s bodies and choices, politicians would be a bit more sincere about caring about the children, but then again, they only care about themselves.
These politicians who advocate having Roe vs. Wade overturn do nothing to prevent what leads to someone choosing to have the abortion.
They don’t want to increase funding to include comprehensive sex education in the school’s curriculum, nor do they want to increase funding to sexual health clinics so they can provide people with high-quality birth control options.
Nor do they want to give assistance to people with newborns or give paid leave to new parents.
All they want to do is control the population, and the best way is to restrict people’s choices.
They barre access to safe abortions with restrictive laws, increasing costs and implementing systemic barriers that directly impact low-income communities and minority groups.
As Planned Parenthood stated, “your access to abortion largely depends on how much money you have, your health insurance, your race, and your zip code.”
It’s funny that the most prominent advocates for banning abortions are not big fans of having the government intrude in every aspect of their life and business, but it is okay to when it comes to women and their bodies.
Abortion “Conspiracy Theories”
Now you may be thinking, “okay, this is where she loses all credibility,” and usually, I would agree with you but bear with me on this one.
We have all seen those articles that talk about how the birth rate in America is declining.
They state that there won’t be enough workers for the next generation and complain about who will take care of our generation, right?
Well, my favorite conspiracy theory, which is to accurate be a theory, states that since the working class is shrinking, the politicians want to take away women’s right to have an abortion to ensure that there will be a working class in the future.
Think about it.
If the current working class stops having kids, they have no one to exploit to grow their wealth.
The only people who will feel the repercussions of banning abortion are low-income, minority groups who make up the working class.
There will always be abortions available for the rich, especially for the politicians who hold tight on to American values when in reality, behind closed doors, they are doing the opposite.
A quote by Renee Bracey Sherman, an executive director at We Testify, an organization committed to the representation of people who have abortions, really brings this “theory” together:
Related Article: Is It A Preference Or Is It Actually Racial Fetishization?
What Would Really Happen If The Government Banned Abortions
It seems to me that pro-choicers think with their rose-colored glasses on. If abortion is banned, everybody would have babies and be happy, and the economy would thrive, and the population would grow.
Sounds amazing, right?
Well, unfortunately, like the American Dream, that dream is not real. It is fake.
What would really happen is much worse.
Now I am not pulling this out of thin air.
Everything that I am about to tell you happened in Romania in 1966.
Under the rule of Nicolae Ceausescu, abortions and contraception were banned in order to grow the country’s population; this is what happened:
- Increase in birth rate/population for a little bit. Then it plummeted.
- Increase in back-alley and home abortions
- Increase in maternal mortality rate (women dying from unsafe abortions)
- An influx of children into orphanages
These are just a few things that we are looking at if abortion is made illegal in the United States.
As the article puts, it “it is a cautionary tale of what happens when a state tries to control reproductive rights.”
To read the full article, click here!
Abortion is Health Care
Banning abortions won’t stop abortions.
It will just make them feel less safe and take away the freedom of choice people who can carry children have.
And the worst part is, in the end, it is all about power and control.
Controlling the population and how they live.
That is why America hates abortions. Because it allows the people to have control over their own body and life and not following the precedent that only benefits those at the top.
Abortion is right, and it is health care.
And everyone, who is in the right state of mind, should have the right to make decisions about their own body.
Sources
- British Pregnancy Advisory Service| What is Abortion?
- Planned Parenthood| Is It Still Legal For Me to Get An Abortion?
- Planned Parenthood Action Fund| Roe v. Wade: The Constitutional Right to Access Safe, Legal Abortion
- Foreign Policy| What Actually Happens When a Country Bans Abortion
- Vogue| The Anti-Birth Control Movement is the New Anti-Abortion Movement
- World Health Organization| Abortion
- Guttmacher Institute| Abortion State Legislation Tracker
- ProCon.org| Should Abortion Be Legal?
- Child Welfare| Foster Care Statistics 2019
- Guttmacher Institute| 2021 Is on Track to Become the Most Devastating Anti-abortion State Legislative Session in Decades
