Showing posts with label friendships. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friendships. Show all posts
Friday, 14 September 2012
Talking about abortion is really scary
The other day I was hanging out with some friends from school.
It was a ridiculously hot day, so we decided to go out for bubble tea (i.e.: basically fruit smoothies, because none of us like tapioca).
While we were talking, somehow we came to the topic of downloading movies and music for free off of the Internet, and whether it is a crime or not.
One of my friends brought up an interesting point:
"Oh please. It's not like downloading stuff off of the Internet is all that bad. I mean, it's not like the question of whether or not you want to keep a baby!"
This would have been the perfect opportunity to steer the conversation towards the question of abortion. Instead, like always, my palms got all sweaty, my heart started racing, and my eyes started to water (I get that upset when I think about killing babies!). Instead of addressing his point - which is a good one (i.e.: people get all worked up about downloading some songs you probably wouldn't have bought anyway, and yet no one cares that there are children being created only to be discarded), I jumped in right away and brought the conversation back to downloading.
Seriously. I'm still wondering why I did that.
I need to grow a pair!
Does anyone else have trouble discussing abortion with friends or family?
Monday, 18 July 2011
How to be best friends with a pro-choicer
One of my oldest and closest friends is about as pro-choice as you can be. She is also one of the only people who I've ever managed to have a civil discussion on abortion with. This is probably because we both hate conflict.
The last time we talked about abortion she agreed that an abortion decision should not just involve the mother - but also necessarily involves the father and the child in the womb. She did not deny the dangers of having an abortion (i.e.: infertility, infection, even death), or the fact that a fetus can feel pain. She even found it very difficult to answer the humanity/personhood arguments against abortion (in fact, every time we've discussed abortion she's changed the subject at that point). But in spite all of this, she firmly believes that abortion-on-demand is a good thing. Her reasoning behind this? It would not be fair to "impose her ideas of abortion on others".
Most pro-choicers I know also follow this line of reasoning.
I find it hard to understand how people who are otherwise strong, smart, and eager to impact the world around them, can have such a laissez-faire approach to the abortion debate. My friend, especially, is a mystery. She's a bit of a socialist, and is eager to have government mandate, require, and involve itself in so many issues - except for abortion.
I find it hard to understand, but I don't find it at all difficult to be friends with her. We share so many interests and hobbies, and like so many, she is simply blinded by the culture around her. I'm probably one of the few people she is close to who challenges her world view in any way.
I also happen to hope that eventually she'll come around and be mostly pro-life. The funny thing is, I'm sure she thinks the same thing about me - that I'll eventually come around and be pro-choice.
(don't worry, that will never happen!)
The last time we talked about abortion she agreed that an abortion decision should not just involve the mother - but also necessarily involves the father and the child in the womb. She did not deny the dangers of having an abortion (i.e.: infertility, infection, even death), or the fact that a fetus can feel pain. She even found it very difficult to answer the humanity/personhood arguments against abortion (in fact, every time we've discussed abortion she's changed the subject at that point). But in spite all of this, she firmly believes that abortion-on-demand is a good thing. Her reasoning behind this? It would not be fair to "impose her ideas of abortion on others".
Most pro-choicers I know also follow this line of reasoning.
I find it hard to understand how people who are otherwise strong, smart, and eager to impact the world around them, can have such a laissez-faire approach to the abortion debate. My friend, especially, is a mystery. She's a bit of a socialist, and is eager to have government mandate, require, and involve itself in so many issues - except for abortion.
I find it hard to understand, but I don't find it at all difficult to be friends with her. We share so many interests and hobbies, and like so many, she is simply blinded by the culture around her. I'm probably one of the few people she is close to who challenges her world view in any way.
I also happen to hope that eventually she'll come around and be mostly pro-life. The funny thing is, I'm sure she thinks the same thing about me - that I'll eventually come around and be pro-choice.
(don't worry, that will never happen!)
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Pro-lifers are rare indeed
During my undergrad, us students had an office to ourselves for studying and working on honours projects. I don't even know how many hours I spent in that windowless, unkept, uncared-for room, struggling to finish assignments and lab reports alongside my fellow students. Spending all that time together meant we learnt quite a bit about each other, even without ever having a face-to-face conversation.
One time, I was studying for a midterm when I happened to overhear a conversation between a couple of guys on the other side of the room. I missed most of it, but I did hear one line that resonated with me:
"Well, I actually know people who are pro-life. No really. There are actually people who are pro-life. Girls even. I know some girls who are pro-life."
This was said in a matter-of-fact way, but the people involved with the conversation looked at the speaker in mild surprise or disbelief. I froze, thinking that this conversation was rather odd considering that they had a valid pro-lifer sitting with them in the room, who was also a girl. But none of them knew that I was pro-life, and apparently they had defaulted to the assumption that I was pro-choice.
How many other people had my fellow students come into contact with who were actually pro-life? From their words, one would think not many, or none at all. But they were having this conversation when they all knew me, and yet they still thought they had never met a pro-lifer, and specifically they thought they had never met a pro-life woman. A couple of the students even went so far to voice the opinion that a girl couldn't be pro-life.
I was surprised and confused by their opinions. Sure, I didn't talk about abortion with many people so I didn't know what most of my friends' views on the subject were - but I still knew several people who were pro-life, and all of these people were women.
So why the disconnect? If these students knew me, and thought I must be pro-choice, then how many other "closet" pro-lifers did they know and mistake for pro-choicers? Obviously there is a problem when a group of people have never met one single pro-lifer. When a group of people actually think that no women are pro-life. How are their views on abortion ever going to change if they never find them challenged by their peers ... in fact, when they believe that everyone in their life thinks the same way they do?
Looking back on the conversation I overheard, I wish I had said something. Even if I had simply said "I am pro-life" and left it at that. Instead I stayed silent, and wondered how they could have never met a pro-lifer ... all the while not realizing that my actions provided an answer to my own question.
I don't believe that pro-lifers are rare. But I do think that active pro-lifers are rare indeed. And that has to change, or no one will ever believe in the pro-life cause. After all, if we aren't even willing to say that we're pro-life, how is anyone ever going to think that we're in the right?
One time, I was studying for a midterm when I happened to overhear a conversation between a couple of guys on the other side of the room. I missed most of it, but I did hear one line that resonated with me:
"Well, I actually know people who are pro-life. No really. There are actually people who are pro-life. Girls even. I know some girls who are pro-life."
This was said in a matter-of-fact way, but the people involved with the conversation looked at the speaker in mild surprise or disbelief. I froze, thinking that this conversation was rather odd considering that they had a valid pro-lifer sitting with them in the room, who was also a girl. But none of them knew that I was pro-life, and apparently they had defaulted to the assumption that I was pro-choice.
How many other people had my fellow students come into contact with who were actually pro-life? From their words, one would think not many, or none at all. But they were having this conversation when they all knew me, and yet they still thought they had never met a pro-lifer, and specifically they thought they had never met a pro-life woman. A couple of the students even went so far to voice the opinion that a girl couldn't be pro-life.
I was surprised and confused by their opinions. Sure, I didn't talk about abortion with many people so I didn't know what most of my friends' views on the subject were - but I still knew several people who were pro-life, and all of these people were women.
So why the disconnect? If these students knew me, and thought I must be pro-choice, then how many other "closet" pro-lifers did they know and mistake for pro-choicers? Obviously there is a problem when a group of people have never met one single pro-lifer. When a group of people actually think that no women are pro-life. How are their views on abortion ever going to change if they never find them challenged by their peers ... in fact, when they believe that everyone in their life thinks the same way they do?
Looking back on the conversation I overheard, I wish I had said something. Even if I had simply said "I am pro-life" and left it at that. Instead I stayed silent, and wondered how they could have never met a pro-lifer ... all the while not realizing that my actions provided an answer to my own question.
I don't believe that pro-lifers are rare. But I do think that active pro-lifers are rare indeed. And that has to change, or no one will ever believe in the pro-life cause. After all, if we aren't even willing to say that we're pro-life, how is anyone ever going to think that we're in the right?
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
My Pro-life Journey
I've talked a bit about why I could never be pro-choice, but I figured I should devote an entire entry explaining my journey as a pro-lifer. Sometimes I find it hard to explain why I think the way I do, just because I find it SO obvious that being pro-life is right. Clearly not everyone feels that way, so here goes nothing ...
I grew up in a Catholic family, and went to a Catholic school, and I was always the sort of person who thought the very best of people. I had a very sheltered life, not only because of my family, but also because all of my friends were more than willing to protect my "innocence" (oddly enough!). I am the first born in a large family, so I've seen my mom go through several pregnancies. They were always extremely exciting times in my family, with the baby welcomed and loved long before we ever got to meet her/him face-to-face after birth. So pregnancy = baby had always been a reality to me. It never occurred to me to think of my younger brothers and sisters as anything less than human while they were still in the womb, and it never occurred to me that once a pregnancy started, someone would want to stop it. After all, babies are miracles! My family is very close and it is just expected and assumed that a mother and father love their children best of all, from the moment they start to exist.
All of these factors together shaped my reaction to abortion when I first heard of it. Believe it or not, I was in grade 10 - and before that day it never occurred to me that abortion would even be possible. I was in class, sitting beside one of my best friends, and she was arguing passionately with a boy sitting in front of us. I didn't like the boy very much, as he tended to stare at girls a lot, and he was very loud and obnoxious. My best friend (at that point in time at least), had completely embraced the "good Christian girl" mentality and taken it to the extreme - she was always talking about God and Sex and Other Big Topics, and I tended to ignore her whenever she went on her rampages. So I was just sitting beside her ignoring them both, when it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't understand what they were talking about. So I turned to my friend and asked her what was going on. She looked at me excitedly and asked,
"You don't know what abortion is, do you?"
And when I shook my head she launched into this huge explanation of abortions and abortion techniques, particularly partial birth abortion. I looked at her in shock, and then looked at the boy and said,
"Well obviously that's wrong!"
And he shook his head. "But what if a girl doesn't want to be pregnant?"
"But she already is ..." I whispered, as my best friend once again launched into more passionate explanations.
I couldn't think of anything else for the rest of the day, I was just so horrified. I could never imagine a mother wanting to kill her own child, and I spent a long time trying to wrap my head around it. I had always believed (and still do) that killing a teenager is worse than killing an adult, and killing a child worse than killing a teenager, and killing a newborn is worse than killing a child (it never occurred to me to kill someone before that). My reasoning was that, the younger a person is when they die, the more life they are losing out on. Killing a child takes away so many experiences than killing an adult, like their first kiss, or their first time travelling by themselves (as a kid, those things were always Big Deals to me!). I couldn't even imagine killing a baby in the womb - they would literally have everything stolen from them - even their first breath!
After thinking hard for several days, I finally just had to conclude that Some People Are Bad, like murderers and rapists, and that Most People Are Good, and would never kill someone just because they didn't want to carry them around in their tummy for a short period of time. I thought of my little brothers and sisters, about how they'd all spent nine months safe inside my mother, and I wanted to cry - to think that there were some brothers and sisters out there who couldn't be safe inside the one place where they should be loved and cared for!
As a grew older I began to recognize that not all people viewed abortion in the same light that I did. One of my good friends had always been counter-cultural (or at least counter-Catholic culture) and considered herself a feminist (which I came to associate with stupidity - mostly thanks to her), so when I found out that she was pro-"choice" I was not too surprised and figured she'd eventually learn how to think critically and change her mind (if you're wondering, she hasn't yet). I was very surprised when my best friend, from the previous story, changed her mind about abortion and proclaimed that now that she could have kids, she didn't want to have to go through a pregnancy if she didn't want to - so obviously abortion was fine. And besides, how could you force someone to carry a child to term? The baby is basically a parasite! I was pretty upset when I first heard about her conversion, but my two biggest shocks came much later, when I was in University. During first year, I found out that one of my aunts supports legal abortion because of the hard cases (specifically pregnancies due to rape), and that conversation ended abruptly when she said we should just stop talking or we'd end up in a huge fight. My other shock came when another one of my good friends, who as far as I could tell believed in everything a Catholic should, decided that being pro-choice was more loving than being pro-life. That came as a huge blow, because it made me realize that you can never really know what a person thinks unless you ask them point-blank, and it made me wonder how many other seemingly good people believed in abortion-on-demand, or even how many girls I interacted with had had abortions themselves. By the way, this friend has since changed his mind - I like to think partially because of me!
Growing up forced me to realize that people that didn't even seem all that bad thought that abortion was fine. It was a hard thing to reconcile, since I'd previously explained abortion away as something that Bad People did. It was also very difficult for me to understand how abortion could be legal in Canada - I had always been so proud to be Canadian, and now I wanted to move to another country! I finally had to conclude that people just don't realize what they are doing or supporting, because if they did, they would be pro-life. I looked at it as a "they know not what they do" sort of thing.
Once in university, I finally started dating. My first boyfriend was not exactly a perfect match for me, but we lasted quite awhile. About halfway through the relationship we realized that we stood on opposite ends of the abortion debate, and we spent a lot of time arguing about it. I preferred not to bring the issue up, because I figured he wouldn't think that way forever (how could anyone support abortion once they have their own children, right?) but he would constantly send me links about difficult issues within the abortion sphere (like mothers who might die if they go through with the pregnancy), or videos on youtube about "crazy religious people" protesting at abortion clinics, and being made fun of. These things would inevitably start debates, and I would almost always win - not because I'm particularly well-versed in pro-life debates, but because my ex was horrible at supporting his own opinions on any topic. Nothing would ever change his mind though, and I promised myself that next time I agreed to date someone, they would be pro-life. Whether I have kept that resolution is a story for another day.
One more thing has shaped my support for the pro-life cause. After high school, one of my friends travelled to another country, to a place where abortion is illegal. She is currently dating a boy that she met during her travels, whose mother didn't want him, and who would have been "terminated" if she could have found a place to do it. Whenever my friend is here she brings up how she believes abortion should be illegal everywhere, and tells that story as support. If abortion had been legal in that country, then her boyfriend would have been killed in the womb, and she would never have met him and fallen in love. When people tell me that the baby in the womb isn't a real "person" yet, I always think of that, and remind myself that abortion takes away an entire life from a very real person - from people like my friend's boyfriend, who was so close to not ever having taken a breath.
That brings me to today, when I decided to write a blog about my experiences as a pro-lifer. I know a few other people who are pro-life (and all of them are girls as well!), but most of them I haven't seen since high school, and one of them lives far away. As a result, I have always felt very alone in my beliefs. So here I am, blogging about my experiences, in the hopes that someone out there can relate to what I write. My purpose here isn't to prove that abortion is wrong, but to provide the world with a look into how someone who is pro-life thinks. I am essentially a typical person - a bit religious, but not religious enough to make it an issue with everyone that I meet. I have one belief that the media paints as crazy and counter-cultural. And I want people to understand that you don't have to be a crazy evangelical nut-case Christian to believe that everyone deserves a chance at life. You just have to be a normal person who loves everyone, including the unborn.
I grew up in a Catholic family, and went to a Catholic school, and I was always the sort of person who thought the very best of people. I had a very sheltered life, not only because of my family, but also because all of my friends were more than willing to protect my "innocence" (oddly enough!). I am the first born in a large family, so I've seen my mom go through several pregnancies. They were always extremely exciting times in my family, with the baby welcomed and loved long before we ever got to meet her/him face-to-face after birth. So pregnancy = baby had always been a reality to me. It never occurred to me to think of my younger brothers and sisters as anything less than human while they were still in the womb, and it never occurred to me that once a pregnancy started, someone would want to stop it. After all, babies are miracles! My family is very close and it is just expected and assumed that a mother and father love their children best of all, from the moment they start to exist.
All of these factors together shaped my reaction to abortion when I first heard of it. Believe it or not, I was in grade 10 - and before that day it never occurred to me that abortion would even be possible. I was in class, sitting beside one of my best friends, and she was arguing passionately with a boy sitting in front of us. I didn't like the boy very much, as he tended to stare at girls a lot, and he was very loud and obnoxious. My best friend (at that point in time at least), had completely embraced the "good Christian girl" mentality and taken it to the extreme - she was always talking about God and Sex and Other Big Topics, and I tended to ignore her whenever she went on her rampages. So I was just sitting beside her ignoring them both, when it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't understand what they were talking about. So I turned to my friend and asked her what was going on. She looked at me excitedly and asked,
"You don't know what abortion is, do you?"
And when I shook my head she launched into this huge explanation of abortions and abortion techniques, particularly partial birth abortion. I looked at her in shock, and then looked at the boy and said,
"Well obviously that's wrong!"
And he shook his head. "But what if a girl doesn't want to be pregnant?"
"But she already is ..." I whispered, as my best friend once again launched into more passionate explanations.
I couldn't think of anything else for the rest of the day, I was just so horrified. I could never imagine a mother wanting to kill her own child, and I spent a long time trying to wrap my head around it. I had always believed (and still do) that killing a teenager is worse than killing an adult, and killing a child worse than killing a teenager, and killing a newborn is worse than killing a child (it never occurred to me to kill someone before that). My reasoning was that, the younger a person is when they die, the more life they are losing out on. Killing a child takes away so many experiences than killing an adult, like their first kiss, or their first time travelling by themselves (as a kid, those things were always Big Deals to me!). I couldn't even imagine killing a baby in the womb - they would literally have everything stolen from them - even their first breath!
After thinking hard for several days, I finally just had to conclude that Some People Are Bad, like murderers and rapists, and that Most People Are Good, and would never kill someone just because they didn't want to carry them around in their tummy for a short period of time. I thought of my little brothers and sisters, about how they'd all spent nine months safe inside my mother, and I wanted to cry - to think that there were some brothers and sisters out there who couldn't be safe inside the one place where they should be loved and cared for!
As a grew older I began to recognize that not all people viewed abortion in the same light that I did. One of my good friends had always been counter-cultural (or at least counter-Catholic culture) and considered herself a feminist (which I came to associate with stupidity - mostly thanks to her), so when I found out that she was pro-"choice" I was not too surprised and figured she'd eventually learn how to think critically and change her mind (if you're wondering, she hasn't yet). I was very surprised when my best friend, from the previous story, changed her mind about abortion and proclaimed that now that she could have kids, she didn't want to have to go through a pregnancy if she didn't want to - so obviously abortion was fine. And besides, how could you force someone to carry a child to term? The baby is basically a parasite! I was pretty upset when I first heard about her conversion, but my two biggest shocks came much later, when I was in University. During first year, I found out that one of my aunts supports legal abortion because of the hard cases (specifically pregnancies due to rape), and that conversation ended abruptly when she said we should just stop talking or we'd end up in a huge fight. My other shock came when another one of my good friends, who as far as I could tell believed in everything a Catholic should, decided that being pro-choice was more loving than being pro-life. That came as a huge blow, because it made me realize that you can never really know what a person thinks unless you ask them point-blank, and it made me wonder how many other seemingly good people believed in abortion-on-demand, or even how many girls I interacted with had had abortions themselves. By the way, this friend has since changed his mind - I like to think partially because of me!
Growing up forced me to realize that people that didn't even seem all that bad thought that abortion was fine. It was a hard thing to reconcile, since I'd previously explained abortion away as something that Bad People did. It was also very difficult for me to understand how abortion could be legal in Canada - I had always been so proud to be Canadian, and now I wanted to move to another country! I finally had to conclude that people just don't realize what they are doing or supporting, because if they did, they would be pro-life. I looked at it as a "they know not what they do" sort of thing.
Once in university, I finally started dating. My first boyfriend was not exactly a perfect match for me, but we lasted quite awhile. About halfway through the relationship we realized that we stood on opposite ends of the abortion debate, and we spent a lot of time arguing about it. I preferred not to bring the issue up, because I figured he wouldn't think that way forever (how could anyone support abortion once they have their own children, right?) but he would constantly send me links about difficult issues within the abortion sphere (like mothers who might die if they go through with the pregnancy), or videos on youtube about "crazy religious people" protesting at abortion clinics, and being made fun of. These things would inevitably start debates, and I would almost always win - not because I'm particularly well-versed in pro-life debates, but because my ex was horrible at supporting his own opinions on any topic. Nothing would ever change his mind though, and I promised myself that next time I agreed to date someone, they would be pro-life. Whether I have kept that resolution is a story for another day.
One more thing has shaped my support for the pro-life cause. After high school, one of my friends travelled to another country, to a place where abortion is illegal. She is currently dating a boy that she met during her travels, whose mother didn't want him, and who would have been "terminated" if she could have found a place to do it. Whenever my friend is here she brings up how she believes abortion should be illegal everywhere, and tells that story as support. If abortion had been legal in that country, then her boyfriend would have been killed in the womb, and she would never have met him and fallen in love. When people tell me that the baby in the womb isn't a real "person" yet, I always think of that, and remind myself that abortion takes away an entire life from a very real person - from people like my friend's boyfriend, who was so close to not ever having taken a breath.
That brings me to today, when I decided to write a blog about my experiences as a pro-lifer. I know a few other people who are pro-life (and all of them are girls as well!), but most of them I haven't seen since high school, and one of them lives far away. As a result, I have always felt very alone in my beliefs. So here I am, blogging about my experiences, in the hopes that someone out there can relate to what I write. My purpose here isn't to prove that abortion is wrong, but to provide the world with a look into how someone who is pro-life thinks. I am essentially a typical person - a bit religious, but not religious enough to make it an issue with everyone that I meet. I have one belief that the media paints as crazy and counter-cultural. And I want people to understand that you don't have to be a crazy evangelical nut-case Christian to believe that everyone deserves a chance at life. You just have to be a normal person who loves everyone, including the unborn.
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Wishful Thinking: Pro-choice to Pro-life Conversion
I found this blog entry from an amazing blogger at www.conversiondiary.com. Reading it reminded me of a lot of pro-choice friends of mine, and sort of made me hope that one day they might go through her same thought process.
I mean, I absolutely believe that someday everyone will be pro-life, just like how no one now thinks it's ok to abandon newborns to die (to use the blogger's example). But whether that will happen in my lifetime or not is completely up in the air. Even so, it would be wonderful to see the people that I love come to realize why I'm pro-life - and then decide that they should be pro-life too!
Ahh ... wishful thinking.
Really, it's a waste of time to wish for things you know aren't in your control. But either way ... the blog entry is an amazing read and I encourage anyone who is reading this to make their way over to conversiondiary.com. And browse through some of her other entries as well!
Addition: Here is another conversion story that I found. I'm including it because it is a bit of a different take on pro-life conversion, and I think that it's so wonderful that she converted a bit later in life. I always hear about how the opinions you form as a teenager and young adult tend to stay with you for the rest of your life - but that obviously isn't always true! And it fills me with hope for the people around me (whether foolishly or not, it's still nice to think that some pro-choicers I know could eventually change their minds) :) Btw, this conversion story is from Abigail's Alcove - read some of her stuff too!
I mean, I absolutely believe that someday everyone will be pro-life, just like how no one now thinks it's ok to abandon newborns to die (to use the blogger's example). But whether that will happen in my lifetime or not is completely up in the air. Even so, it would be wonderful to see the people that I love come to realize why I'm pro-life - and then decide that they should be pro-life too!
Ahh ... wishful thinking.
Really, it's a waste of time to wish for things you know aren't in your control. But either way ... the blog entry is an amazing read and I encourage anyone who is reading this to make their way over to conversiondiary.com. And browse through some of her other entries as well!
Addition: Here is another conversion story that I found. I'm including it because it is a bit of a different take on pro-life conversion, and I think that it's so wonderful that she converted a bit later in life. I always hear about how the opinions you form as a teenager and young adult tend to stay with you for the rest of your life - but that obviously isn't always true! And it fills me with hope for the people around me (whether foolishly or not, it's still nice to think that some pro-choicers I know could eventually change their minds) :) Btw, this conversion story is from Abigail's Alcove - read some of her stuff too!
Sunday, 26 June 2011
Everyday Events
Sometimes I find that the less I want to think about the pro-life cause the more everyday things conspire to remind me of it. One event in particular comes to mind.
A couple of nights ago I was out with a few high school friends that I hadn't seen in a very long while. We got pretty drunk and started talking about any and all topics under the sun (I'm sure you all know how it goes). We got onto a common topic of marriage and children and how the people around us seem to be growing up so fast - for instance, two of our friends from high school are married, and quite a few of our friends (but not the same friends) have had babies recently. Specifically, one of our very good friends had just had a baby about a week ago, and her boyfriend at the time wanted to have an abortion but she refused. An all too common story, I'm sure, though most often with a different result. :( We were wondering whether or not the boyfriend was still in her (and the baby's) life, when one of my friends said,
"Well, what's the big deal? Situations like these aren't complicated. If you get pregnant by accident, then all you have to do is ..." [stabbing himself in the stomach].
I was shocked, because it was obvious he intended to be truthful, but funny. I just couldn't believe that someone would say something like that over a baby that was already born, essentially saying her baby should actually be dead - and then think that such a statement is amusing. I don't know about you, but I'd have thought that no matter what your opinion on abortion is (pro-life, pro-choice, or indifferent), that saying something like that would always be considered to be in very bad taste, and I would say, even cruel. Abortion is NEVER a "simple" solution to an accidental pregnancy.
Anyway, I just had to write about that even though it happened a couple of nights ago. I couldn't get it out of my head. It's depressing when you realize how some people view something like abortion as simple, and even funny.
A couple of nights ago I was out with a few high school friends that I hadn't seen in a very long while. We got pretty drunk and started talking about any and all topics under the sun (I'm sure you all know how it goes). We got onto a common topic of marriage and children and how the people around us seem to be growing up so fast - for instance, two of our friends from high school are married, and quite a few of our friends (but not the same friends) have had babies recently. Specifically, one of our very good friends had just had a baby about a week ago, and her boyfriend at the time wanted to have an abortion but she refused. An all too common story, I'm sure, though most often with a different result. :( We were wondering whether or not the boyfriend was still in her (and the baby's) life, when one of my friends said,
"Well, what's the big deal? Situations like these aren't complicated. If you get pregnant by accident, then all you have to do is ..." [stabbing himself in the stomach].
I was shocked, because it was obvious he intended to be truthful, but funny. I just couldn't believe that someone would say something like that over a baby that was already born, essentially saying her baby should actually be dead - and then think that such a statement is amusing. I don't know about you, but I'd have thought that no matter what your opinion on abortion is (pro-life, pro-choice, or indifferent), that saying something like that would always be considered to be in very bad taste, and I would say, even cruel. Abortion is NEVER a "simple" solution to an accidental pregnancy.
Anyway, I just had to write about that even though it happened a couple of nights ago. I couldn't get it out of my head. It's depressing when you realize how some people view something like abortion as simple, and even funny.
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