The "Right" to Choose

In looking at the news today, there are a few stories that have caught my attention, but I plan on looking only at one of them. In South Dakota, legislation to end abortions in the state has been signed by the governor and is expected to take effect in the summer. If the law is bale to go into effect, doctors in the state can be put into prison for five years and pay a five thousand dollar fine for performing an abortion. In fact, all abortions, including rape and incest cases, are banned in South Dakota. There is only a narrow margin of error where a doctor could perform an abortion is the life of the mother is in dire or if the fetus died by accident.

Pro-life groups see this particular piece of legislation as a major step in over turning the Roe v Wade decision the Supreme Court made back in 1973, which legalized abortion in the United States. Pro-choice advocates are now finding themselves in a difficult predicament. Planned Parenthood plans on challenging the South Dakota law in an attempt to stop the limitations of a woman’s right to choose. Although Planned Parenthood is considering all of its options at the moment, it is been reported that an anonymous individual donated ONE MILLION DOLLARS for the purpose of defending the pro-life law and keep it in place.

Fact of the Matter

The fact of the matter on this issue is this: abortion is a social irresponsibility. Let’s face it, when it comes to abortion, there are certain messages that are sent to both the men and women involved with the situation. For the man, he knows that if he doesn’t want to take responsibility for creating a child, he tells his girlfriend that she must get an abortion if she wants him to stick around. As for the woman, certainly being forced into this position from the man is difficult. In addition to this, the woman finds herself feeling that people will look at her differently.
The cynic in me says that everyone does have the right to choose. A man can choose whether to keep his zipper up and a woman can choose to keep her knees together. This idea does not sound too unreasonable to me.

As for me, I am against abortion, for those who haven’t figured it out yet. Over the weekend, I pondered an interesting statement made by a blogger known as NoVA Democrat. He stated that a fetus is not truly a live until a central nervous system is in place. On this point, I must disagree. An individual is alive when the heart begins to beat. Thanks to medical technology today, mothers can listen to the heart beat of their children while inside the womb. As a result, we know there is a life inside of the woman. In addition to this, we now know that a fetus can sense and knows when the mother is happy, sad, anger, frustrated, and every other emotion under the sun. As a result, the fetus can react to the mother’s emotions.

Some folks ask about the consciousness of the fetus. Does this fetus have the ability to think? I have a question for them. Does a mentally handicapped kid have the ability to think? Do children with nuerological issues have the ability to think? The standard answer might be yes, but how often do we look at those children, shake our heads, and give this sense of pity over letting them live a life that is otherwise hindered by their handicap?

I will be honest with all of you when I say that trying to think about what to say next is difficult. I have spent the better part of fifteen minutes trying to think of how to continue with this post. The reason is because this is a difficult issue to talk about. However, after some careful thinking, I have thought of a final point on this issue.

We have a choice when it comes to bringing a child into this world. We have CHOICE to either give this child every possibility that is within our means. We have a CHOICE to have them work to their potential. We have a CHOICE to either help them or give up them. Finally, we, as individuals, have a CHOICE. We can choose to do something with ourselves or we can choose to quit.