Several years ago, during a discussion about abortion, I expressed to a pro-choice friend of mine (and I am pro-choice) that if I (a single professional woman) found out I was pregnant, I would have the baby, even though I was actively trying to not conceive at the time. I told her for me, I just didn't have a good enough reason at that point in my life to not have the baby , which would be my CHOICE. She told me that if I didn't plan the baby, then I should abort it because the child would sense my resentment and grow up without feeling loved.
Needless to say, I was taken aback! I wasn't a planned pregnancy, yet my parents chose to have me anyway, and I never felt unloved. By the time my mom gave birth, they were ready for it and were excited, but that was because they made the CHOICE to go through with it. It concerned me that someone with a basically good message distorted it in such a way, so as to sound "anti inconvenient pregnancy", rather than pro-choice.
The pro-choice movement must include people who would make the difficult decision to continue with a pregnancy. Pro choice women who choose to have a continue with a pregnancy are expected not to judge mothers who choose, after careful thought and personal reflection, to terminate their prenancy, so why should mothers who continue with the pregnancy be judged by someone who is supposedly pro-choice as being bad mothers before they've even given birth ?!
That whole conversation left a bad taste in my mouth.
On Thu, 10 Oct 2002 23:18:28 -0700 Luke Weiger <lweiger at umich.edu> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "C. G. Estabrook"
> To:
> Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2002 7:45 PM
> Subject: Re: abortion
>
>
> > There is no orthodoxy more firmly fixed in
> the American political
> > firmament than that opposition to abortion
> belongs on the Right, while
> > "defense of abortion rights" is the lodestar
> of the Left. But the
> > conjunction may be accidental and only
> temporary.
>
> I agree that there's nothing particularly
> "left" about being in favor of
> abortion rights--but it is the correct
> position.
>
> -- Luke
>
>