The Abortion Basics: What is the Abortion Debate About?
This is the second installment of Rabble’s The Abortion Basics mini-series.
One of the most common misconceptions I see while writing for Rabble Pro-Choice is that people generally don’t understand what the abortion debate is actually about. A lot of anti-choice people I speak with and some pro-choice ones think it is about abortion as a procedure. This is not really true. So what is the abortion debate about?
Choice.
You either believe a woman should be able to have the option to choose a safe and legal abortion or you don’t. This is not about banning abortions to stop women from getting them (because they will just get illegal ones anyway and die from them). This is not about whether abortion is morally right or wrong for you as an individual. It is about giving women an option other than giving birth. If someone doesn’t agree with abortion, personally, and would never get one, that’s a completely different matter, it should not affect what someone else is legally allowed to do.
The abortion debate is about trusting women to make a personal decision about their own bodies. If you don’t trust a woman to make a medical decision about her own body, how can you trust her to do anything else?
The next installment of this mini-series will address whether or not you can be anti-choice and a feminist at the same time.
Love,
Rabble
(Related links: The Reproductive Rights Glossary)
