Pro-choice and Pro-life

I describe myself as both pro-choice and pro-life. 

Sometimes I have described myself as anti-legislation, but that doesn‘t encompass the fullness of my position.  I am also anti-demonstrations out side of clinics, anti-shaming of women for the choices they make, anti-ignorance, anti-abstinence only education, and anti-forced birth.  I'm also very pro contraception.

I support decreasing abortions for several reasons.  Medically, any time you instrument the uterus it increases the risk of malplacentation in a subsequent pregnancy.  Abortion is very safe, but still carries with it the risks of all procedures, bleeding, infection and death.  Better to avoid it.

The other reason I prefer not to encourage abortion is that I believe that life begins at the first cell-division after conception.  This does not mean that abortion is always “wrong”, but for my own personal religious beliefs, I prefer to prevent the need.

Abortions are at an all-time low, and we can continue this trend, not by making them harder to get or more expensive, but by decreasing un-intended pregnancy and increasing the social and economic support for children.

We really can decrease un-intended pregnancy by providing good, factual education about sexuality and reproduction starting in kindergarten.  There are age appropriate curricula.  Education has been shown to DELAY first intercourse, not advance it.  When teens know what they’re getting into, they often choose to wait.

We can also decrease un-intended pregnancy by making contraception easily available, preferably for free.  School based clinics and improved education for health care providers.  In many countries contraception gets started almost automatically for teens.  It doesn’t increase their rates of sexual activity.

We can decrease women’s needs to have abortions by providing high quality low cost child care to women who need to work, and by providing paid maternity leave. 

There are always going to be occasions on which abortion is the best answer to a situation.  I was trained by people who remember the bad old days when women died from botched illegal abortions.  Most women who seek abortions already have children.  Dead women make bad mothers.

I also oppose the death penalty.