Abortion and where I stand

There was a time in my life when I had an opinion on everything. Such is not the case anymore.  I won’t pretend to be an expert on every topic ever. I suppose part of this is because I used to enjoy debating.  I know I’m not the only one, or debate wouldn’t be a course in school. 

I’ve mellowed out considerably- avoiding confrontation and disagreements because I don’t like to judge people and I don’t know their lives- where they are coming from- challenges and trials they face- or their cultural background.

However, there are a few topics on which I feel vehemently and will not be swayed regardless of context be it cultural, political, religious, etc. 

Now, I am not sharing this because I want someone else to tell me their opinion or to debate the other side of an argument. I’m sharing this because I want there to be no doubt in anyone’s mind ever, how I feel about this. Abortion.

This, to me, is a dirty, horrible word much like the holocaust.  It makes me nauseated to think about and to talk about, but ignoring it doesn’t change that it’s happening.

Yes, people will argue another side than the one I believe in, but to be fair, I recently met a 98 year old woman from Germany who told me bluntly and boldly that the reason why her childhood was so great and her schooling was so great was because of Hitler. She said that Hitler loved children.  I guess that just shows that everyone has an opinion and there are two sides to everything.

And what makes abortion different from the holocaust?  Well, the holocaust killed 6 million.  Abortion kills 3,300 a day. That means that since it’s been legalized it’s been the cause of 50 million.  I’m not inventing these numbers- its real. It’s shocking. It’s disgusting.

Well, the holocaust was the get rid of a particular group of people- Jews. Hitler wanted only blond hair blue-eyed people. Abortion targets the unborn.  99% of down syndrome babies are aborted.  Do you know how far along in your pregnancy you have to be in order to know that a baby has down-syndrome?  They just offered to test my baby and I am 20 weeks along. That’s halfway. That’s 4 1/2 months.  I’m far enough along to know that I am having a little girl. I am far along enough to feel the little girl kicking me from the inside.  My baby is between the size of a mango and a banana. She has all her fingers, toes, she can swallow and her kidneys work- she can even pee. She can hear and her hair is growing. 

So if you try to convince me for  a single second that this little baby is not a baby or is not alive, you better think again. What makes something a living thing?  You want to get scientific? Okay, scientificallly speaking living things require respiration (oxidization of fuels), food intake (getting materials to burn), growth (mass increment), reproduction (ability to leave copies of itself) and must be self sustaining.  Well, my 20 week old baby does all of these things.

You want to say, “Oh, she’s not self sustaining. She depends on you for life.”  Self sustaining? What is self sustaining?  Fires are more self-sustaining than my 2 year old.  She depends on me for life too.  In fact, she requires much more attention than my unborn child does. She’s a hazard to herself.  If she were left alone, she would die. Yes, that’s a horrible thing to say about a 2 year old. It’s also a horrible thing to say about a 20 week old.

Is the terrible age old adage “I brought into this world- I can take you out of it,” accurate?  Rather, it would say, “I started to bring you into this world- I can decide to take the experience of life from you entirely!” So at what stage does a child become a child?

I hear women say “Well, it’s my body.” Yes, your body is your body. You can do whatever you want to with your body, but here’s the thing- the baby inside of you is NOT YOUR BODY! It’s a different body. So unless you have four arms, four legs, 20 fingers, 4 kidneys, etc, then it’s a completely different body over which you should not have complete control.

Freedom of choice? I’m not suggesting we take agency from anyone. Women are free to go have sexual relations with whomever they want to. I’m not stopping them or telling them not to. BUT at what point do we as human beings take responsibility for our behavior? 

Babies born at 19 weeks have lived to adulthood.  I was born only 3 weeks early and I required much medical help. I was in Newborn ICU learning to breathe and getting my lungs cleared for a few days before I was able to go home.  I was not ‘self sustaining’. Does that mean that I wasn’t alive? Does that make me just a random mess of tissues and blood rather than a tiny human body with a soul and a future?

I’m not going to get really graphic on you, but I think that people who have an abortion should have to hold the child in their arms or at least the pieces of the child in their hands so they can see what they were told wasn’t a child. 

I’m not suggesting that everyone who gets an abortion is a deranged murderer who delights in the bloodshed of innocent children. That is obviously not the case or they wouldn’t stop with unborn- they would go into preschools with guns. BUT, I think there is a lot of misinformation and a lot of men and women who don’t want to educate themselves regarding what abortion really entails, how late it can happen, and how developed a fetus is when many abortions happen.

The facts are uncomfortable. The images will haunt you. You shouldn’t obsess over it or you will have nightmares, but for goodness sake, and I mean for the sake of goodness and humanity and the future, at least take the time to step back from any political or religious opinions you hold to get some actual, true, solid facts about human life, the development of a fetus and the meaning of life. 

Don’t bother arguing with me; my opinion is not up for debate on this issue. Just know where I stand.