The Struggle

     I have been working on this post for quite some time, thus the title, "The Struggle"; but then as you read on you may find another meaning. 
     I may have mentioned this before:  I don't like the terms "Pro-Life" and "Pro-Choice".   To me they are too simplistic, and they force each of us into a corner on very complex issues.  If I could find the persons who coined them, I think I would like to clobber them.  With a rolled up newspaper, over the head.  Since newspapers are not as prevalent as they were in yesteryear- I guess one of the many catalogs I receive in the mail would suffice.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
     I have felt this way for as long as I knew what they were intended to represent.  I know I am not the only one.  Life is precious.  Each life is precious.  Yet each is vastly different in experience.  No two women's experience in this life is the same, but they all deserve the dignity and control over their body.  That is equality.
     Yet, these two terms were created.  They were created to give voice to the very sensitive topic of abortion.  To my thought, they have done little other than divide people, into two debate groups.  One that says you want choice?  Why not make a different choice before you get pregnant?  The other, you're for life?  Why don't you care more about the life after it's born?  These retorts are not mine, just what I commonly hear.  Would other labels have served better?  ProPrivacy came to mind.  I have thought long and hard, wondering, how can we do better?  How do we raise our young so they understand the value of life?  Keeping in mind our own memories of those awkward, awkward years of feelings, hormones, and wanting so much to make sense of becoming independent and still having the need to belong.  How do we ensure that a medical procedure that has been around for millennia, remains legal, safe, available, and above all private?  How do we get rid of the vultures that perform it at extortionary costs, in unsafe conditions?
     Roe vs. Wade's 41st anniversary was a few weeks ago.  Some churches had services to "recognize the 55 million babies aborted in America since that decision".
     There were abortions prior, and the numbers would likely astound all.  Nor were many of them safe.  The passage of Roe vs. Wade didn't necessarily make it safer for many.  I did not attend the service.  As for the "55 million babies": please don't read this as a lack of compassion, but I hope that the women that were involved, the men, many times, very young, scared individuals were recognized and prayed for as well.  I think it's important to include in these services, the untold number that was from before; for the women that had to go it alone, without support; or had to struggle through protesting crowds; or back some alley or unclean fly by service, and the number of lives lost; including the doctors, and so many others.  To me this is painful proof of one thing: WE HAVE FAILED.  Within our communities, our churches, and our families.

Failed to educate and to protect our daughters, our mothers, our wives, our friends, and so many others.

Failed to be there.

Failed to listen.

Failed to at least try to understand.

Failed to not judge.

Failed to show compassion.

      Our paths to enlightenment and salvation are unique.  There are many faiths, from the devout to the atheist, practiced today in the United States.  Religious freedom is one of the primary reasons America was sought, settled in, fought for, and exists today. 
      Abortion is a medical procedure that dates back to ancient times; more than 7000 years.  Abortion needs to be safe, legal, available, and above all PRIVATE.  For all women.

     Yes, I am well aware of the practice of aborting fetuses, usually female, as a purported so called means of "population control".  There is also the practice of "putting girls to sleep;" as well as the fact that an estimated 140 million women who are alive today have suffered genitalia mutilation.   By writing this post, I am not professing in any way shape or form to have any answers.  These practices may happen outside the United States, but they are part of the universal thought, that on some level, whether it be mental, physical, predestined, or whatever; that women are not equal to men.  

     The thought dives me crazy, and I will do all I can to change it.  I try to remember and live by accepting what I cannot change, and exerting courage to change what I can.  It is my thought and hope that when I change what I can, eventually things that I once thought impossible to change, may be within my reach.

     I see as an evil, when we do not teach our young about their bodies, sex, love, and the precariousness and preciousness of life.  When we fail to do that, we must strive to not fail further, by casting judgement.  In my family, this, I can control.  I will do all I can to teach, talk and listen to, and love, the humans I am raising.

     So, in an attempt to start small, if we could just go beyond the terms "Pro-Life" and "Pro-Choice."  Because none of us are forgone conclusions.

     Then, let's talk about life.  Let's talk about really caring for one another.  Let's talk to our kids about their bodies.  Choices.  Passion.  Protection.   Let's just really talk and really listen; without the labels.

Because we are more, so much more than labels.



Think you know about abortion's history? Check it out here -> History of Abortion