I understand why people find the very notion of abortion repugnant. I really really do.

I really especially doubly and quadruply understand because I’m very close to popping out a child I really really want. Third and final. The end of the trilogy. The finale of my baby-making career.

But at the same time, as I consider the wonder that is childbirth and feel the joy of the impending life that I will bring into the world I am reminded of something very very important.

It’s MY damn body!!!!!!!

Sorry if I was a little loud there. There’s a truck I see pretty frequently that is festooned with bumper stickers and signs and placards telling everyone how evil abortion is. Now I’m not saying it’s great and I’m not saying it’s bad. It’s not MY thing. But I’m sick of every person who wants to get into the face of every woman and tell her that she is an evil hellspawned twisted bitch for ever having considered or used an abortion.

I know alot of chick who have done the D&C thang thank you very much. I have yet to find one who used abortion as a “convenience” or as a “lazy form of birth control” (thinking oh if I get pregnant no biggie I’ll just go to the doctor and get my problem fixed) and I’ve never met a single woman who enjoyed doing it. I’ve known more than a few who felt relieved afterward but that doesn’t mean they felt good or didn’t wonder if they made the right choice.

Those who cry that it’s live at the moment of conception, well you might be right and you might not. God ain’t really clear on the status ya know. If it’s just a collection of cells with no brain, no organs to speak of and not a chance in hell of living outside of of a womb, it just might not be a full life yet. You can disagree with me that this is a gray area but I have to tell ya, it’s pretty darn gray.

Too many people are making voting decisions based on this one thing. Oh my god he supports a woman’s right to choose? He must LIKE abortion! He’s a heathen. So I’ll vote for the other guy who doesn’t have any of my best interests at heart and will make life worse for me and my children.

Wether right or wrong and whether God thinks life starts in the first trimester or the second trimester, I need you all to understand someting if you’re in the finger pointing crowd:

IT ISN’T YOUR BODY. IT ISN’T YOUR DECISION. AND GOD DOESN’T GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO JUDGE!

You want to try to talk women out of abortion, fine. Do it gently and respectfully. And walk away peacefully if you can’t convince her.

And please don’t start on the “well, the other thing is that the man has a say in this too”

No he doesn’t.

I don’t mean to sound mean about it, but he doesn’t. In theory he should and in theory I’d like every father to have a say. But the dude has the easy job in making the baby. He doesn’t have to carry it, he doesn’t have to face the risks to health and life that come with the job and he doesn’t have to squeeze it out in the end. Asking a women to go through 9 months of something she doesn’t feel she can do because the guy says he’ll be there at the end to take the kid himself is asking a lot, particulalry if she couldn’t trust him enough to stay with him or have a kid with him to begin with.

Pro-choice is just that: Standing up for a woman’s right to make her own decision during a time when the life inside her is still at a stage where it’s ability to live on its own is nil. That don’t mean pro-abortion. I’ve yet to meet anyone who is pro-abortion. It’s pro-choice.

And if you call yourself pro-life, I sure hope you’re against killing someone in self defence and agaisnt capital punishment too or you are a damn hypocrite. If you’re pro-life, it’s your job to convince women not to choose abortion. Not your job to bomb clinics or threaten doctors or get Roe vs. Wade overturned. It isn’t your job to take choice away.