My Life is Important too

Everyday women get pregnant, and everyday women have children. More frequently, however, it isn't women that are making all of the decisions about the future of their own lives. The 1990's spawned a new uprising in purity and religion, and has effected the way that women today make decisions about what to do with their own bodies and lives. Part of the effects have been caused by a political stance called "Pro-Life". The feelings and opinions of the pro-lifers have made it very hard on women who are choosing to, or who have already had an abortion.
In these days, it is not uncommon that a woman will have an unplanned pregnancy. There are many reasons for this, but for the most part it is simply because of accidents using contraceptives, or simple carelessness on behalf of each partner. Because of these unplanned pregnancies, abortion rates are at an all time high. In fact, nearly half of all United States women will have one abortion by the time they are 45. There are many reasons that a woman would have an abortion. Some of them are health related, some are related to being victims of sexual crimes, and some are just the woman not being ready for the responsibility of parenthood.
Any of the reasons that a woman has for wanting an abortion are good reasons. Weather it is not being ready for motherhood, or being the victim of a violent sexual crime. Women today are expected to be independent and hardworking. It is not always in the woman's life plan to become a mother. This is a decision that should be left to the woman and the woman alone. No one person should push their opinions on a person and make a perfectly logical procedure illegal.
The moral issues surrounding abortion include, feelings that the unborn fetus is a person already, or that the fetus will feel pain during the procedure. Planned Parenthood Federation of America clearly states that, "the embryo or fetus can not perceive pain in 99 percent of abortions that occur before the 20th week of pregnancy. Planned Parenthood also warns of so called "crisis pregnancy centers" that will use scare tactics to discourage the abortion. They will tell lies about the procedure, and the after effects, making it seem like having the baby would be a more favorable decision.
Some of these "pro-life" fundamentalists have been causing more harm than good in their campaign against abortion. On October 23, 1998, Dr. Barnett Slepian was shot to death in his house by a sniper. In July of 1994 Pro Life fundamentalist Paul Hill shot and killed Dr. John Britton of Fernandina Beach, and James Barret of Pensacola. These people are going out and murdering people, and feeling no remorse for it. Paul Hill was noted as saying that he was "directed by God to kill an abortion doctor". These people are wrong. Killing others to try and stop so called "murder" is lunacy. They do not know, nor do they understand the emotion trauma that goes into the decision to have an abortion.
It is simply not an easy decision no matter how you look at it. I have a friend who's mother has had 2 abortions in her lifetime. My friend described to me the struggles that her mother went through because of these "Pro-Life" fundamentalists. They made her feel like a heartless individual, and a murderer. She had to go through counseling to deal with the grief that she hadn't started to feel until the uprising of the pro-life campaigns in the early 1990's. It is tragic that any woman should have to go through that kind of torment over a decision that she made about her own body and life. It makes you wonder if perhaps the name "Pro-Life" isn't a bit hypocritical. Because while they want to protect the lives of the unborn, they are wishing to hinder the lives of the living with a burden they may possibly not be ready for.