"Pro-choice" rhetoric

Before I start this post, let me forewarn anyone who is “pro-choice” – you’re not going to agree with me on this one, so you may want to head elsewhere. I’m pro-life – in all circumstances – and I don’t apologize for that. I used to be pro-choice, too, and I understand your position. But I started down a quite different road after the experience I described in this post. Please read it and think about it just a bit.

At any rate…

The other day I heard a bit on the news in which they rattled on about a contraceptive that’s “effective for 5 days after unprotected sex”. Note: this is called a contraceptive. In my view, though, this product is seriously mislabeled. There’s a difference between contraceptives and abortiofacients, and we might as well call a spade a spade. For what this product does is take a newly-conceived life and kill it.

This isn’t the only instance where pro-choice is prettied up to make it palatable. Even the word choice is misleading. The only person who makes a choice here is the woman.

Which leads us to another misnomer: some folks speak of the right of the mother to make a choice. But in fact, a woman who kills her child before the baby’s birth is not a mother at all.

Want another example? Go to this website to find out where to get emergency contraception (again, effective up to 5 days after unprotected sex) in your area. Go to the Q & A section of this website to find out if you can get emergency contraception without parental consent, or if you can get it in a Catholic hospital, or whether it’s advisable to keep a stock of emergency contraceptives on hand “just in case”.

Want another example? This website eulogizes Dr. George Tiller, who had an extremely busy practice providing abortions to those who wanted them. Dr. Tiller was murdered by a man who called himself “pro-life”. (And yes, this, TOO is mislabeling. Murder is inconsistent with a pro-life stance, and a person who commits murder can't call himself "pro-life".) At any rate, the tribute to Tiller says, “It is with great sadness and respect that we join our members and his family in remembering Dr. Tiller’s life and his many contributions to women's reproductive health care.”

What’s healthy about undergoing an abortion? This is, after all, a surgical procedure. And surgery of any type is not without risk.

There are also the risks of abortion that aren’t discussed by pro-lifers. “Twenty-seven worldwide studies have independently linked induced abortion with breast cancer.” (See here). And there's the possible impact on the woman’s emotional health. But more immediately, the risks of abortion include infection, hemorrhage, perforation, early miscarriage during subsequent pregnancies, and death.

Oh. And... Hello? Death of the baby is pretty well assured, right?

And besides… isn’t this actually un-reproductive health care?

So. You want to be “pro-choice”? Fine. But please don’t use euphemisms when you’re talking to me about “choice”.

As for me? I say “Let the baby choose.”

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