THE A-WORD

Sex happens and sometimes the result is pregnancy. Happiness for the people who want a baby. What occurs when the woman or family can’t raise the child?

Adoption is a loving option. It is difficult but courageous when the woman can place the child with an individual or couple who is able to provide as a parent(s). Ideally, the father of the child will be involved in this decision, too. Open adoptions are wonderful. A family member of mine matched her child with an open arrangement (when she was 16) and is still in communication with him. She is informed of his status, visits on occasion, and he knows that she cares about him. His biological dad is completely out of the picture. She married someone else and has other children. They know their older half-brother lives with another family but he is a part of their life.

Abortions have been occurring for thousands of years. For myriad reasons, the woman was not able to have the child. Sometimes the abortion is forced upon her, which is a crime. Illegal abortions are not good for anyone. Tragically, too many women have died or been sterilized in the process of seeking an illegal abortion.

Sometimes abortion is the only option. There can be medical reasons why the pregnancy cannot continue. No woman should die because she isn’t able to obtain an abortion. Rape and incest are other valid reasons for an abortion. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) could haunt her for years or the rest of her life. The PTSD would be significantly increased if she has to carry a child that was not conceived out of love. The child could be harmed after it’s born because it was not wanted. She could inadvertently take out her anger on other children in the family.

There are many other reasons why a child cannot be born. Maybe there are already several children and the family cannot handle one more. It is a personal decision. Who has the right to say what is correct and what isn’t? I have never met anyone who blissfully decided to obtain an abortion. It is a heart-wrenching decision. It is absurd to think that abortions occur out of vanity.

What will occur if abortion becomes illegal again in the United States? Women will die seeking an illegal abortion; children will join a family and not be loved or wanted; families will have more financial problems because they have more children; etc, etc, etc. There are consequences for every action. Meanwhile, cutting pregnancy prevention services to the poor (such as slashing Planned Parenthood’s budget), sex education and ending federally funded abortion will only drive the US into more dire straits.

The people who want to end abortion (aka pro-life or anti-choice) need to:
* prevent pregnancies (abstinence does not work) by providing free/low cost birth control to both genders, starting at puberty;
* provide factual sex education to all pre-puberty kids, emphasizing birth control and “safer” sex practices;
* researchers need to find more options for both genders to use easy and cheap birth control;
* streamline the process for adoption, especially older children;
* aid all the children who will be abused and neglected because they are not wanted;
* improve education for all children and make sure that all adults have at least a GED; and,
* provide services for poor families with children (welfare, food, medical care, housing, etc).

BE PRO-PREVENTION, provide free birth control!
© 2011

WHEN DOES HUMAN LIFE BEGIN?

Is the moment that the egg and sperm unite and it divides into to two cells? Is it when the cells form a body that can live on its own outside the womb? I don’t think that we will ever completely agree upon the moment when human life starts. Medical advances permit premature babies to survive that would have perished only a few years ago. Nine months may not be needed for gestation and survival of a new human life.

Abstinence is an illusion. Humans are sexual creatures and “just say no” isn’t logical. Sexual intercourse happens, pregnancy can be the result. I wish that every dividing egg would be born as a healthy child. Reality can be harsh. Many pregnancies end in a spontaneous miscarriage. For whatever reason, the pregnancy was not viable and the womb empties itself to prepare for another pregnancy. The woman may not be aware that she was pregnant. I had just learned that I was pregnant when my body rejected the baby. I was devastated emotionally when this occured but was a physically healthy 21 year old.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, the old saying states. Pro-life and pro-choice people can agree on this issue. I am PRO-PREVENTION. Birth control should be free/low cost and easy to use for everyone engaging in heterosexual intercourse. When a male wants to mate, they must wear a condom. Men can’t rely on The Pill or any other birth control mechanism to thwart the sperm’s journey. Women are responsible to take The Pill, use a diaphragm or some mechanism to stop the matching of the egg with sperm. Females can’t rely on the condom working 100% of the time. When BOTH partners use some form of birth control, the chance of an unwanted pregnancy is reduced.

Controlling hormones can be a challenge with passion rises and clouds judgment. Practice Prevention Every Time That You Have Sex! Period. End of Discussion.

Be Pro-Prevention, provide free/low cost birth control!
© 2011