“I’m pro-abortion, and I think we should kill all the babies.” That is an aggressive statement, and you’ve likely never heard a pro-choice advocate say such a thing. This, but in reverse, is how pro-lifers sound. Forcing a woman to do anything to her body that she doesn’t want to is tyranny.

Being pro-life is just as extreme as being “pro-abortion.” If all women were forced to get abortions, there would be outrage.

Pro-choice is not pro-abortion. It is simply allowing a woman to decide what she wants to do with her body. This idea shouldn’t even be up for debate. A woman deserves the right to choose if she has a baby or not.

I don’t believe abortions should be used as birth control, but you never know the situation behind the abortion. A woman would never get an abortion without weighing all the other options. No one wants to have an abortion.

Republicans seem to be pro-life until the baby is born — then they don’t care unless the baby is born into a privileged, white family. Republicans focus so much on babies inside women, but once the baby needs education or healthcare, they don’t seem to care anymore.

Republicans say that adoption is a better option than abortion, but I’ve never heard a Republican talk about all the money they’re giving toward the foster care system. They don’t “give handouts” to those who are less fortunate, but they want to force a woman to give birth no matter the circumstances.   

Republicans seem to want less government control until it comes to a woman’s body. The majority of the people I’ve heard talking about being pro-life because of the New York law have been men. These men don’t want the government to control them, but they don’t mind it happening to women.

I’m sure there are also women who don’t agree with the Reproductive Health Act, as well as these men. Many people don’t understand the complexities of this act. It’s not just murdering babies whenever you please.

There are some misconceptions about the Reproductive Health Act in New York. A lot of people think women can just decide to get an abortion whenever they want. That is not the case.

The Reproductive Health Act that was just passed in New York says that a health care practitioner may perform an abortion when, “according to the practitioner’s reasonable and good faith professional judgment based on the facts of the patient’s case: the patient is within 24 weeks from the commencement of pregnancy, or there is an absence of fetal viability, or the abortion is necessary to protect the patient’s life or health.”

New York used to only allow abortions after 24 weeks if the patient’s life was threatened. Now, the law allows abortions after 24 weeks if the patient’s life is threatened or the fetus isn’t viable.

Unless the woman or her baby are going to die, she shouldn’t get an abortion after 24 weeks. I agree that aborting a child after that point is murder, but that is not what is happening. If a woman wanted to get an abortion, she probably wouldn’t wait until the baby was about to be born.

Ashlon Lusk is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from Houston, Texas.