The Abortion Pill...

The Abortion Pill…

As a woman who has suffered from infertility, the Supreme Court’s decision to side with businesses like Hobby Lobby in their goal of keeping women from affordable, safe healthcare is disgusting to me. However, I do support religious freedom (even if I do believe religion is hogwash), and am more than happy to let anyone practise any religion they choose. Want to worship an invisible man in the sky? Go for it. Want to believe that he sent part of himself to earth to erase all of our “sins”? Great! Want to smear yourself in peanut butter and sing songs in praise of the peanut? Fine by me, but when your peanut overlord starts interfering in my life, that’s when we have a problem.

I personally, have never had an abortion, though I have taken Misoprostol, which is the actual “abortion pill”, three times. How can I say I have taken the “abortion pill” and never had an abortion? Because when I would successfully get pregnant with J, the first 6 babies miscarried, and neither of us could stand to wait for my body to expel it naturally, which can take weeks. I couldn’t stand the thought of carrying my dead child inside of me, so I was offered Misoprostol as an option to end the failed pregnancy. I have also had a procedure that is exactly the same as a traditional abortion when I lost the baby further along. All of these experiences were heartbreaking and made me question if I was even a woman by the standard definition.

I firmly believe that at least 98% of women who have an abortion, for whatever reason are not “happy” about it. Some do it because they are not ready to be mothers, some because they can’t support a baby, some because they can’t physically carry a baby to term, and some because the baby has already died in utero. There are as many reasons to have an abortion as there are women having them, but very few of them are doing it for fun.    

If I were to get pregnant right now, I wouldn’t get an abortion, though I would be pretty pissed to find out I was pregnant, because that is a family planning decision that my husband and I have made. If I were to have gotten pregnant at any time before the age of 25 or so, I would have walked into Planned Parenthood with my head held high. I have never been a reckless woman, I did not have unprotected sex until J and I made the decision to have children, but I also understand that birth control fails, and accidents happen. If Delilah gets pregnant and for whatever reason can’t or won’t take care of the child, then I will be right there with her at Planned Parenthood, holding her hand and telling her that everything will be ok, and that she is making the right decision. But, having access to Plan B and other emergency contraceptives is much less horrifying than having to go into the clinic and have what amounts to a medical procedure with risks, or going through labor and birth of the fetus.

While I will admit that there are certainly women who use Plan B, and abortions as their form of birth control, I don’t support what these women are doing. A woman should take her health into account and make good and informed decision about family planning. This isn’t the Dark Ages any longer, where women were essentially forced to have child after child until menopause or death during childbirth. Haven't we evolved beyond that? Aren't we moving past women being treated as second-class citizens? How come old men and corporations have more rights in regards to my body than I do? I realize that we live in an "Old Boy's Club" kind of country, and the younger generations are struggling through the decisions of our parents and grandparents generations, who see to believe they know what's best for their children, but what rulings like the Hobby Lobby ruling have done, is shown the world, that America isn't really the Home of the Free if the few can take away the rights of the many.