#WhyIHaveMarched

I have struggled trying to figure out exactly what to say in this post. There are so so many things I could say on this topic but I will attempt to make this as coherent as possible.

In 1973 the joint decisions of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton made abortion legal in America. I think abortion was legalized in attempt to provide a solution to a problem. However, legalized abortion simply treats the symptoms and not the root cause.

The problem is that women (and men) think the only way they can save their own life is to end their child’s. Every parent who considers abortion wants to save some aspect of their own life – their freedom, money, time, anxiety, or body among other things, all at varying levels of seriousness and severity. This problem did not begin in 1973. The problem was there when women sought dangerous illegal back-alley child-killing procedures instead of carrying their child to term.

Instead of seeing legalization as the solution to the tragedy of back-alley abortions, shouldn’t we ask what is driving her to it in the first place?

I agree with the pro-abortion activist who says that abortion is a matter of women’s rights, but in a very different way. I have to think that simply considering abortion as a matter of women’s medical rights is a very shallow way to look at it. Why do too many American women think to succeed at work, they have to hide their ability to carry a baby – one of the characteristics that distinguishes them as women? Why do we continually allow it, day after day, to be okay for our culture to tell women that being pregnant and having a child will somehow make her sub-par?

I’m certainly not saying that we as women should have babies just because we can, but I have met too many wonderful people conceived in less than ideal situations to think that the answer to an unexpected conception is to destroy the new life.

This line of reasoning also leads to this unfortunate conclusion: Simply outlawing abortion will not solve the problem. While I am 100% in favor of making abortion illegal; just as legalized abortion wasn’t the beginning of the problem, criminalizing it is not the end of the solution. I must admit that even if abortion did solve problems in society I would still think it is one of mankind’s greatest tragedies as it ends the life of a valuable God-created human.

But above all else in this post, please hear me say: My heart breaks for the woman who feels that abortion is the only way out of a horrible situation.

We, as a society, need to tell her that pregnancy does not make her less valuable and that adoption is a good option. We, as a society, need to tell her that she can be a successful mom and chase her career goals. We, as a society, need to tell her that if she decides not to pursue a career to stay home that she isn’t a failure. We, as a society, need to tell her that if finances are a problem we will do what we can to help.

And we can’t just tell her with our words and nice thoughts. We need to tell her by affecting real change. Note how the US stands out on this map. Most of all, abortion doesn’t tell her any of these things. It just perpetuates the lie that these things aren’t true. I’m NOT willing to settle for that, are you?