Funding organizations like Planned Parenthood forces taxpayers to pay for activities that go against their religious or moral beliefs.
As of right now, 17 states fund all or most medically necessary abortions. In a country where an estimated 55 percent of people oppose all or most abortions, the fact that these states give to abortions regardless of the people’s beliefs is unethical and undemocratic.
The funds that go into specific abortion-performing organizations should instead solely fund contraceptive and adoption options for women. Countless families across the nation are looking to adopt children, so let’s help them out. If given the choice, I’d prefer my money to go toward contraceptives and proactive healthcare for women rather than toward ending the lives of countless babies before they have a chance.
Pregnancy impacts a woman’s body regardless of how long she’s been with child. Many women who go through the abortion process are left with a form of posttraumatic stress disorder called post-abortion stress syndrome, which may not show up for a few years. According to a five-year study, 25 percent of women who had an abortion sought out psychiatric care.
A personal friend of mine had a miscarriage after 13 weeks of pregnancy. During the process of miscarrying her child, she went through labor pains in order to pass the growing human fetus in her uterus. She also experienced post-pregnancy bodily changes because her body had been preparing to care for a child. A miscarriage may not be exactly the same as an abortion, but the effects they have on a woman’s body are synonymous to each other.
After the Super Bowl, complaints from NARAL Pro-Choice America exploded across Twitter claiming that the Doritos commercial showing a child in the womb reaching for its father’s Dorito chip was “anti-choice.”
The tweet said, “#NotBuyingIt – that @ Doritos ad using #antichoice tactic of humanizing fetuses & sexist tropes of dads as clueless & moms as uptight. #SB50.”
Women need an ultrasound in order to make an informed choice. “Pro-choice” should mean that women get a choice, and women can’t make informed decisions if they don’t have all the important information. Ultrasounds allow women to see what is growing within their body and hear their baby’s heartbeat.
If she is determined to have the procedure, then the ultrasound shouldn’t change her decision. But the woman needs to see the baby’s life she’s ending. Otherwise, the act of aborting a child isn’t “pro-choice.”
Regardless, the opposite of life is not choice. It’s death, and we shouldn’t determine when life begins if countless medical professionals cannot make that determination.
According to the 2014-2015 Annual Report, Planned Parenthood performed 323,999 abortions for every 2,024 adoption referrals.
If Planned Parenthood is worried about money, adoption brings in far greater profits. Adoptionhelp.org states that “attorney adoptions of newborns generally run from $20,000 to $30,000.” Compare that number to the abortion cost, which is a maximum of $1,700. Getting into the adoption business brings in more money and saves the lives of innumerable children.
Like most, I am pro-women’s health, but I don’t want to wait until a woman is pregnant to start caring. If you really want to help women who are not ready for pregnancy or are not looking to become pregnant, don’t put them through the horrendous process of an abortion, and don’t choose to end a life simply because a woman didn’t have access to contraceptives. Let’s be pro-women, let’s be proactive and let’s be pro-life for both women and children.
Charlie Bonacquisti is a 20-year-old mass communication sophomore from Dallas, Texas.