Abortion is one of the most controversial and uncomfortable political topics to discuss and may even be the reason Donald Trump did overwhelmingly well at the polls this past Election Day.
The question is: Why are women’s personal decisions about their bodies being discussed in terms of politics at all?
The pro-life versus pro-choice debate was shoved into my face when I was as young as 11. That year’s 2008 presidential election was the first during which I was old enough to understand and take interest in the issue.
Now-President Barack Obama was running against John McCain for what would be his first presidential term. This caused a stir among my friends because their parents had been discussing the politics of abortion at the dinner table the previous night.
At the age of 11, barely knowing anything about conception — let alone what an abortion was — I agreed that a baby should never be killed. It just seemed wrong to me.
I eventually learned that isn’t what abortion is.
Aside from popular belief and false information Donald Trump relayed at the presidential debate, abortions do not happen a week before the baby’s delivery.
During the third presidential debate, Trump said, “In the ninth month, you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb.”
This untrue, ridiculous scare tactic was used simply for political gain, and obviously it worked.
Trump claims he’s pro-life, as do many other conservatives, but they’re not so much pro-life as they are pro-birth.
Conservative lawmakers and their supporters push their pro-life agenda with the idea that every life is sacred, but these same people are more likely to vote in favor of the death penalty than not.
In many states across the country, it is getting more and more difficult for women to obtain safe abortions because of waiting periods, parental consent requirements and the call for defunding Planned Parenthood.
Some women are more inclined to turn to unsafe methods of abortion because of this. Imagine how many women would resort to these unsafe and life threatening methods of abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
Is every life still sacred?
The legislators who claim to be pro-life are the same men and women who want to decrease funding for programs like SNAP, food assistance programs like WIC and education and health care programs that help families, mainly children.
In situations like these, the same women who couldn’t afford a child in the first place are now being left to struggle while trying to take care of themselves and the child.
Of course, there’s always the option of putting an unwanted child up for adoption, but today there are nearly 400,000 children living in the foster care system without a permanent home. More than 100,000 of them are waiting to be adopted. The idea of adoption is beautiful, but it’s not as simple as it sounds.
I’m not telling everyone who claims to be pro-life to trade in their pro-life picket signs for pro-choice signs, but at least understand that being pro-life is more complex than just being against abortion.
Brianna Rhymes is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from New Iberia, Louisiana.