CRJ 7

So as I was reading through the chapter, I was trying to decide what I wanted to focus this entry on. At first I thought of focusing on the health insurance. But I only wanted to contradict the text and say that even middle and upper-class women can have a hard time getting health insurance because of employment and other disadvantages they may find. My mom, for example, who owns her own business has had a hard time acquiring health insurance. Not only did she have the obstacle about finding a company that would work with her situation she also had the obstacle of past health related experiences she's had and the health insurance companies don't want to have you as a client if you've ever had a cold before.

Then I thought about focusing on the sterilization as birth control. This is a tough topic. I don't think that it should even be considered unless there were some outstanding need or reason for it. And that was when I got to the most controversial portion of this chapter. The topic which I always try to keep myself out of conversation with because of the red flags and feelings that get tossed around. There was the topic of abortion staring at me.

Originally I told myself I would approach this topic with an open mind. That lasted through the first 2 sentences and then went out the window as soon as I read the third sentence about pro-choice. "Pro-choice advocates believe abortion is women's choice, women should not be forced to have children against their will, a fertilized ovum should not have all the legal and moral rights of personhood, and all children should be wanted children." (325) As soon as I read that sentence I knew what I wanted to focus this paper around.

I have a very confusing stance on abortion. Sometimes I don't even know what it is that I believe. I like to lean more toward the Pro-Life end of the spectrum where even a fetus is a living organism and should have the right to continue to grow. So my opinion of pro-choice is that a woman should have the right to choose to practice safe sex and if she fails to do so then she should not have to take it out on the child- and I say child for a reason. Abortion cannot and should not ever be a form of birth control, and I think that is where our culture has taken it. The text also says that if a woman has the "unwanted child" that she is experiencing a moral responsibility. I think that is bull crap. If the woman has unprotected sex or doesn't take the necessary precautions that she should to try to avoid this kind of situation, then I think she should have the child and put him/her up for adoption. There are many families that cannot have children on their own or that would love to take in another child and care for this child as if it were there own.

This is where my view of abortion becomes hazy- rape cases. This is where my view-point on abortion goes from you are still killing someone to actual remorse and sorrow. This is a case where the woman was not given the choice to have sex, she was not giving the choice to have safe sex and there is nothing she can do. This is the time when I wish the law were still if a woman were raped they would immediate wipe her reproductive system clean and kill all sperm that may or may not have entered. If this were still practiced then there would be no need for abortion in these kinds of cases.

To be honest, if I were to become pregnant now- a 20 year old college student, my first thought would to abort the pregnancy. But at the same time I would have that guilt that I did not protect myself like I should have and that I am deciding the fate of my child. Deciding that this person that was supposed to grow inside me will never see the colors that I see, will never experience the sounds and smells and places that I have been, that it will never hear a name called to come to dinner. Pro-choice activists say that there is the moral issue of having a child they do not want. For pro-life activists there is the moral issue of deciding the life of a child that will never have an experience. For being a Christian there is the underlying sorrow, anger and repulsive feeling toward yourself for killing God's creation. In my opinion, as a Christian, I believe that each person becomes pregnant for a reason. Each time a child is conceived God had a plan for that child and He ordered that sperm to fertilize that egg and produce a baby.

I know I should have focused more on the text for this entry. But I really felt that this was a topic that I needed to speak on for myself. I never have the option to express myself in these kinds of situations. Either someone has made the decision for me or I just haven't had the opportunity. But I needed to really focus my opinion and write it down so I could see where I do or don't stand. I think I have found that I am a pro-lifer and until I find out otherwise I just need to accept myself and also accept other's opinions- even if it is really hard to do.