I listen to a lot of talk radio. On the way home from the grocery store, I was listening to a little bit of the Neil Boortz show. He is a conservative talk show host. When I first started listening, they were talk about the politicians who have announced that they are going to run for the Presidency in 2008. They were talking, in particular, about Rudi Giuliani. The guy who had called in to the show was saying that Giuliani should try to get the conservative Christian vote. He then mentioned that Giuliani was pro-abortion. Immediately, Boortz was all over him. He was saying that Giuliani had never said or done anything that indicated that he was “pro-abortion”. He ranted and raved for a few minutes. He said that the issue was not “pro-abortion” and “pro-life”, but instead he insisted that it was “pro-choice” and “against choice”. He was trying to say that people who are “pro-choice” are just against the idea of government being so powerful that they can force a woman to have a baby that she doesn’t want. I quit listening to the show at this point, because it made me mad.
I don’t understand this argument at all. I am pro-life. 100%. I think that every baby that is conceived has the right to be born, whether the biological parents want to take care of it or not. I think I am pretty pro-choice, too. Not in the mainstream way, though. I don’t think that a woman should have the choice to abort a baby that she has conceived. How can I be pro-choice then? I’m pro-choice because I believe that every woman has the choice whether or not she wants to have sex. I think that if you choose to have sex, you are choosing to risk getting pregnant. Even if you are using contraceptives and get pregnant when you don’t want to, you are still aware that there is a chance of pregnancy each time you have sex. That is a woman’s choice. All of the high profile psychologists tell us in their talk shows, books, and websites that to choose a behavior is to choose the consequence. One of the “consequences” of having sex is getting pregnant. There are, or course, instances when a woman has her choice taken away from her by being raped. In those cases, I think women should be encouraged to do what’s right for the baby. Have the baby, and then let someone adopt it if you don’t want to raise it. No, you didn’t choose to be raped, but you can choose to let a baby live. The baby didn’t choose to be conceived by an unwilling mother. Should the mother then be allowed to take the baby’s choice away from it? I’m sure most people would ask to live being given the choice of life or death. Why do we advocate for the rights of women, yet deny the rights of the women (and men) who have yet to be born?