Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice

Okay guys, let's talk.

One of the biggest controversies since Roe vs. Wade has been abortion. The constant back and forth battle between Pro-Choicers and Pro-Lifers has been prevalent. So, today, we're gonna talk about the main contrasts and comparisons between the two movements. Why do they exist? What do they stand for? Let's find out.

This is an issue that I am extremely passionate about (although I am going to do my best not to provide a personal stance in this post), so I have done a lot of research. But, for this post, I have decided to get a deeper insight into both sides. To do this, I constructed my own survey. I surveyed 26 different people; 13 Pro-Choice, and 13 Pro-Life. I have learned so much about the opposing movement, and even things about the movement that I associate myself with. And today, we're gonna talk about what each of these movements truly mean to these people. So let's get started, shall we?

Pro-Life: 

An important thing to realize about the Pro-Life movement is exactly that. The Pro-Life movement is supposed to be focused on all life. Although this movement constantly contradicts that notion by being against all abortions under any circumstances including rape, incest, and the health of the mother, or being pro-death penalty (being a mainly right-wing Republican movement), the movement is supposed to follow this policy of life. A common misconception by the Pro-Choice movement is that Pro-Lifers are out to get women, and deny their right to choose. Is this really the case? Well let's take a look: In my surveys one common thing showed up in almost all of the questions when asked what was the most important thing to them about their movement: Sex education. A major aspect of the Pro-Life movement is informing and educating women to make the right decision about sex, and if they make a mistake, that there are other options other than abortion. In fact, two Pro-Lifers (who I shall remain nameless for their own privacy) said it perfectly, "Ultimately, If you are not willing to suffer the consequences of pregnancy knowing there are failure possibilities in birth control, don't have sex simple as that." and "I want women to understand that there are other options besides abortion." The Pro-Life movement is not a movement that wants to deny women their "right to choose" because it is filled with "empowered white men", because a lot of women are Pro-Life, including the two people who gave me the quotes mentioned above. Yes Pro-Lifers are mainly concerned with abortions, but they are also concerned with informing women of their other less mentally traumatizing options, such as adoption or abstinence. Another hugely misconceived notion about the Pro-Life movement is their view on abortions in cases of rape, incest or when the Mother of the fetus' health is at risk. This may come as a shock to you Pro-Choicers so brace yourselves: Most Pro-Lifers support the decision made by 15 states to allow abortion in the case of rape, incest, or the health of the Mother or the fetus. So why is it thought that Pro-Lifers don't share these views? Well most legislation presented by members of Congress or state officials have proposed bans on abortions or funding of abortions at any cost. But these pieces of legislation have either been poorly written or not representative of the views of the people. The fact here is that the Pro-Life movement is meant to represent all life. However, politicians such as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and, yes, ultra-conservative former President George W. Bush, are constantly ignored as being responsible for the backing of the piece of legislation that would allow abortions in the circumstances of rape, incest or the health of the Mother/fetus. The life of the fetus is the most prevalent, mainly because most abortions take place not because of these situations aforementioned, but the life of the Mother is vital also. The life of the Mother is important because she is, overall, a life too. Someone might wanna drop this piece of news to these Pro-Lifers who don't seem to see that.

Pro-Choice:

The Pro-Life movement seems to misunderstand this notion: The key word in "Pro-Choice" is choice. In fact, of the 13 Pro-Choicers that I surveyed, 8 of them mentioned the word "choice" when asked what was the most important aspect of their movement, and 11 of them stated that they would not actually have an abortion themselves. One Pro-Choicer even went as far to say that abortion was the least important aspect of the movement. So why the hype? Well, Pro-Lifers constantly view Pro-Choicers as being "Pro-Abortion" because they believe that women should have access to this kind of procedure under any circumstances. But it's not about being able to have an abortion, it's about having control over your own body. Some Pro-Choicers wouldn't even ever have an abortion themselves, they just want women to be able to make such a decision if they choose to do so. One Pro-Choicer, who is actually just a friend of mine and I did not survey said it best.  She said, "I'm Pro-Choice, but I don't believe that abortion is the right choice." Profound. Pro-Lifers blow up the movement as being a bunch of "baby hating murders", where it actually depends on what your own personal beliefs of what definition of when life begins is. Are some Pro-Choicers also extremely Pro-Abortion? Absolutely. But the contrast between "Pro-Abortioners" and "Pro-Choicers" is one wants the right to have an abortion, and the other wants women to be able to take back their bodies. So what do Pro-Choicers really want? They want to empower women to make their own decisions. They want to provide sex education so that abortion wouldn't be an option, but if it is, that it is readily available to them. Sound familiar? That's because Pro-Lifers want the same thing, minus the whole "abortion being readily available" part.

Now that you all, hopefully, learned a little bit more of an insight to the opposing argument, let's discuss. Why do we attack. Pro-Lifers attack Pro-Choicers for being "baby killing monsters" and Pro-Choicers attack Pro-Lifers for being "misogynistic choice deniers". So what's the reality here? The reality is that we both want the same thing. We both want to educate young women so that abortion is not the option. The only contrast here is that Lifers never want it to be the option, and Choicers want it to be available. Let's stop arguing over who's right, who's wrong, and who's going to pay for the abortion. Let's start arguing over how we can get our women to realize the repercussions of their actions, and educate them to make the right decision for themselves and their child based upon their beliefs. Trying to get women to understand that their sexual decisions are imperative to the rest of their lives is important. But how they choose to deal with it is determined by whether or not she believes in Pro-Life or Pro-Choice. But, let's stick together so when the time comes to make her decision, whether that would be whether to have sex or not to have sex, to abort, or not to abort, or to put that child up for adoption or not is educated, and it's our jobs to do so.