abortion rights

i've always tried to explain my position on why abortion must remain legal. a former gynecologist who saw many botched at-home abortions because he had to repair the damage done wrote a piece for the ny times essay section that i read that explains why.

the reason is because even if the procedure is illegal, it will not prevent women from seeking them out, but it will kill them. it will leave them maimed for life. they will be subjected to horrors. because historically women get abortions whether or not they're illegal.

i saw some men protesting near the gynecology/obstetrics office that i go to. white men. who i'm sure had the friday off while i was around the corner having an ultra-sound done to see why i have been so sick recently. they had these big posters of aborted fetuses, which are gruesome.

i think that maybe pro-rights people should take a different stance in their protest. start showing photographs of the women brutalized by procedures done illegally and in back alleys. while i don't really think that someone should be exploited in that way, these men and pro-life protesters are exploiting the fetus. they're exploiting the parents of the fetus.

i just don't understand why you would struggle so hard to control something that doesn't effect your own body and won't. something that you will never understand because it is physically impossible for you to understand.

i've had conversations with myself about abortion, and i've had friends who have been through them. they're awful, they emotionally rake a woman over the coals and leave her thinking about what could have been her child for the rest of their lives. but those are children that would've been brought into an unhappy life, for the most part. one that couldn't provide them with a fair life. these women were not ready, and neither were the fathers.

people make the decision to have an abortion for all sorts of reasons, but they are their own. we shouldn't be relegating them to unsafe practices when a safe procedure is available. women will have abortions. the question is whether or not they will have them safely.

live on roe v. wade. live on.