Op-Ed

Eden had pink hair, torn jeans, and a gross inner conflict. Her Mormon faith had taught her the sanctity of an intimate relationship with a man, but her heart kept yearning to hold him one more time, after all, they were in love. My sister was like any other free and bright eyed teen but when she found out she was pregnant only one thought entered her mind, “What have I done to prepare to be a mother?” All of her social butterfly days were over now and she grew up in a matter of seconds, pleading with God to help her change.

The toilet bowl was made of porcelain and was a muted shade of burgundy to match the rest of the tiled restroom. Eden sat alone on the floor slowly letting hell burn her from the inside out, the flames of pain eating at her empty belly. She saw him and his little body floating in the water but how could she flush him down the toilet? A child is not the only one who dies in a miscarriage.

Years later my brave sister had a premature baby of 1 pound and 6 ounces. Eden developed epilepsy and discovered she has lupus (an auto-immune disease). She almost did not make it but somehow she lived to be pregnant yet a third time. They say, “Third time’s a charm” but for Eden it was nothing but misfortune. She desperately wanted to keep that 4 month old and live to see him, but the doctors and she knew they only way she would live at all was to abort little J.D. A mother’s psychological well-being is affected by abortions which create trauma and what is known as post-abortion syndrome. Psychiatrists and doctors have admitted to understanding that a woman is destroying herself and disturbing a life process. (Ankerberg, &Weldon, 2011)     

I tell this story so that human beings all over the world can catch a glimpse of the true horror of abortion and the loss or “toss” of a child. Too many women have experienced similar health situations to my sister; some have faced abortion due to rape, and force. These women ache and repress the psychological or emotional damage while thinking, “How could any woman truly want this.” Policies need to change.

 

 

Choice, not to be confused with opportunity, is truly the only freedom every man and woman share. So tell me, why do some women believe they don’t have a choice in their own reproductive systems if they are not given constitutional rights to abort? What is the purpose of being able to abort a pregnancy? Women already have the unalienable right to choose. Women are even born with the top of the line birth control, which is choice. Choose to be abstinent; choose to work a little harder to pay for a little play (contraceptives and pills.)  Etc. No one has ever taken these rights away from any woman.

After watching Eden suffer for so long our family knows that her choice to abort J.D. was necessary. Her only child would have been without a mother. The choice still weighs a heavy toll on Eden and I am sure many others like her. Things are clear. There are legitimate reasons for abortions and women do have the rights to choose what predicament their body will end up in, but there will always be women who take advantage of this right, women who do not understand Eden’s sorrow. Glendon (1987) explains that women can easily and legally terminate an unwanted pregnancy on various grounds such as distress. Abortion is no longer only allowed as an exception when necessary to save a woman’s life. (p. 11-15)

This is the reason to push for a policy in which women must participate in physical and mental examinations to receive a medical doctor’s approval before an abortion can occur. A policy, in which women have opportunities within their health care plans to speak with doctors, lawyers, and social workers about healthy and easy alternatives to abortion, would be beneficial to not only the pregnant woman and the pre-born, but the family and community as well. With this policy more women would still have their choice of motherhood or non-motherhood, while simultaneously granting the pre-born its growing life.

Blog about it, write to your representatives, bring it up in church, this subject is still alive. Women do deserve more than abortion. We deserve policies that will benefit our health and our lives not tear us apart with an easy way out. Abortions are not healthy for a mother or her child. So change the world look for greater solutions to this growing division between women.

 

                                                References:

Anti-abortion protester in London [photograph]. (October 27, 2007). Global Report Shows Abortion Rates Falling. Retrieved December 2, 2012 from: http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2009/10/14/global-report-shows-abortion-rates-falling/

Ankerberg, John, & Weldon, John. (2011) The Facts About Abortion. ATRI Publishing.

Glendon, Mary Ann, (1987) Abortion and Divorce in Western Law: American Failures, European Challenges. The United States of America: President and Fellows of Harvard College.