I’m 21. I’m in college. Many of my friends are beautiful sluts of both genders. I understand that condoms break. I understand that people forget to take their birth control. I understand that people think very little once they’ve funneled 8 beers or thrown back 12 shots. I completely understand what it’s like to be young, stupid and horny. But I’ve grown quite tired of the misleading and emotionally manipulative narrative of the pro-choice movement.
I’m not going to talk about how cruel of a procedure abortion is, or how abortion has nothing to do with women’s rights, or how calling a human being a “fetus” or a “clump of cells” is not only misleading, but doesn’t magically absolve it of its humanity. No matter how many facts anyone on either side of the line is presented with, it’s very rare to see people’s opinions change. Instead, I think a more constructive conversation would be one that focused on reducing unwanted pregnancies in the first place.
As you may or may not know, this past winter was the third snowiest in the history of Boston. My school is right outside the city. One Saturday this past winter, my friend got black out drunk. She was throwing back shots of plastic bottle alcohol left and right. This girl was (and is) a champ and a talented drinker, but she also had no recollection of the night before when she woke up. After piecing together what her friends had told her about last night and the physical evidence. She was annoyed with the guy, and with herself, but she didn’t feel violated. Was it a mistake? Yes. Was it kind of embarrassing? Yes. Was it rape? No, not to her anyway. To her, the idea that the presence of alcohol alone constituted rape was asinine, and although she blacked out, she knew that there was no way of other people knowing when that happened. Also aware of what a horn ball she could be when she drank, she knew that at the time, she was probably all about it.
No one was on campus to give her a ride to the pharmacy near our school because it was a long weekend, so she walked the 10 minutes in the cold. Because of the weather, the pharmacy was closed. She tried the Shaw’s across the street from the pharmacy. They didn’t sell any morning after pills. Normally, she would have been able to hop on the train for 15 minutes to the closest CVS, but because of the weather, the train wasn’t running. She walked an hour both ways in a bone chilling winter to the closest CVS to buy an emergency contraceptive.
At the end of the day, she knew that the few hours of discomfort she endured were not only worth it, but her responsibility. She knew that she was better off $50 poorer, being safe rather than sorry a month later.
The vast majority of abortions aren’t performed as a result of rape or the mother’s life being threatened. They’re performed for convenience. They’re performed because it isn’t the right time for a child. As a 21 year old that loves drinking and all kinds of degeneracy, I understand more than anyone not wanting to get fat and give up my freedom. While I’m disgusted by people that try to normalize or even encourage abortion, I can sympathize with people that have made irreversible decisions under the pressure of their lives and expectations.
At the end of the day, sex is an adult act, with possibilities of adult consequences. People need to stop gambling with life, and take sex more seriously. “Pull out game strong” isn’t a contraceptive. Use condoms. Get on birth control. If something goes wrong, get the morning after pill. If you aren’t mature enough to take serious precautions, you aren’t mature enough to be having sex.
abortionaccountabilityconservativegoplibertarianpro choicepro liferepublicanresponsibilitysafe sexsex
what do you think?