Blog for Choice Day!

Check out what other commenters have to say on why they're pro-choice at Bush v. Choice.

As for me, I'm pro-choice for many reasons. Because I believe that families should be formed intentionally, not by accident. That every child deserves to be wanted and the chance to grow up in a safe, nurturing environment. I also believe that every woman should have the right to make decisions about her own body and her own life, along with the right to safe medical procedures and unbiased counseling -- regardless of her economic situation. And because I know that women are willing to risk their lives -- both to end pregnancies and to continue them.

I completely second everything that you've said, Tyler, and have some thoughts to add.

I'm more than pro-choice. I'm pro-family (in whatever shape a family may take). I'm pro-child. I'm pro-health. I'm pro-woman. I'm pro-honesty.

Here comes the shocking confession. I'm also pro-life, and here's why. I'm pro-life because I refuse to allow my values to be co-opted by the linguistic ledgerdemain of the anti-woman right wing. I refuse to allow anyone to tell me that because I value women's lives, I don't value "life". I want healthy babies AND healthy moms. I see safe, legal, and widely-accessible abortion as an important--indeed, essential--part of that equation.

I watched a bit of the streaming video of Blogs for Life yesterday (no, I don't get combat pay) ... the emcee in intrdocuing Sen. Sam Brownback said, "the pro-life movement is about so much more than abortion" then ran off a litany of all the ways they are trying to increase their shrinking numbers by re-defining their movement. But in the end, I agree with mernlar -- I too am pro-life because life is not a political context, not something to be poll tested, not something for a privileged few. Life is about free will (aka choice) and the far-right seeks not to improve the lives of more people, by offering healthy solutions to birth, sexual and reproductive health and death -- but to continue to marignalize the lives of people whose personal choices they view as "wrong". The good news is those intolerant views are born of ingorance, and the perfect antidote for ignorance is education and information. We have tools to reach people now in ways humans have never before known. The teaching and learning -- from all parts of the world is happening, and the choice has been made ... it will just take a little time for the intolerance to be washed away. But choice, its here to stay.

Scott@rhrealitycheck.org

Bravo, all. In addition to all the great reasons to be pro-choice (and pro-life...nicely said, menlar), I find that an essential trust of women sits at the root of my participation in this movement.

I trust women to make good, if often difficult, decisions about their own health. They know, better than anyone, what's at stake for their bodies and their lives. I have faith that women and families think hard about decisions like abortion; what they stand to gain, what they stand to lose; what's at stake for them as a family.

I trust teenagers, provided we arm them with as much knowledge as we possibly can, to make better decisions than if we give them deceptive half-truths and guilt trips.

I believe in choice because I believe in women. In men. In families. In teenagers. In knowledge. And I trust, I demand, that I have that same freedom to make my own life choices.