Abortion

Abortion: A polarizing topic that I believe gives us a sneak peek into the windows of our minds and souls. Now my intention is not to pass judgement on those who support it-actually yes it is-tons of judgement. Just as we judged slavery to be morally wrong and reprehensible to support, the topic of abortion is no less different. I’ve had people close to me openly express their support for abortion as I’ve rocked my now 2 month old to sleep. Some are friends, some are family, many are women, as well as other people who self-identify as men. As a mostly rational person I find that fact is really weird, creepy, and tough to deal with. I like to speak bluntly and honestly about this because I think we need to. These are the most helpless among us, individual beings. Pregnancy is temporary, but death is permanent.

The phrase ‘life is short’ takes on a very grim tone when you think about the topic of abortion. I keep hearing that they’re not ‘persons’ but I’ve yet to see two people reproduce anything else but another person. One of the most beautiful things about life is opportunity, let’s fight for that. One of the simplest things people can often agree upon is to not do to someone else what you wouldn’t want done to you. We were all there once.

There’s something really troubling about humans in that we often apply value to each other depending on how we look, our size, whether we’re liked or popular, or based on what we can’t or can do. It happened to me when I was really skinny and I saw it happen to others when they were teased for being fat, for not being able to throw a ball, for not being able to think quickly enough, or for needing help with anything.

I’ve been guilty of this myself. I remember I was taking the F train by 14th street one day, and on the way to board the train I bypassed a homeless man who was asking for money. Minutes after I’m on the train another homeless person is begging for money, the only difference is that He’s playing and singing with a small guitar. I enjoyed it and found it entertaining, so I pulled out a dollar. No more than 20 minutes had passed before I realized what I had just done. I felt like the most horrible person on earth. I asked God, Mary, all the angels and saints, and the entire cast of Friends for forgiveness.

It’s not at all surprising to see that many of the arguments of those who favor abortion are based on the exact same premises. They point to size, whether it is wanted or not, what it can or can’t do, how it looks, whether their brain is functioning (trust me, we don’t want to go there). Some even mention their ability to feel pain though I find it’s really ironic to question someone else’s sensitivity when you’re the one advocating for their death.

The loss of one’s life is the greatest possible loss anyone can suffer. It deprives one of all the experiences, activities, projects, baseball games, concerts, falling in love, speaking your mind and all the enjoyments that would otherwise make up one’s future. It is not just going from alive to dead that it is wrong, but all that is forever taken away.