I am pro-choice

I am also pro-life. No, these two ideas aren't mutually exclusive. Let me explain:

I do not like these classifications for the abortion debate. Using the 'pro-life' name for the anti-abortion argument creates the idea that the other side is 'pro-death,' and that's not the case AT ALL. Advocating to keep abortion legal is only advocating for women's rights. Criminalizing abortion will not save lives, it will only take more lives. If someone has decided they are going to get an abortion, nothing is going to stop them, but eliminating safe, sterile facilities where women can go will cause them to turn to unsafe arenas, or 'back alley abortions.' More often than not, these procedures leave women sterile due to infection or scarring, and they can even kill the woman. Explain to me how a woman dying is pro-life.

Within this argument lies, for me, another issue: sex education. I do not think abstinence only education is at all helpful. All it does is teach kids that sex is bad, and that they should wait. Never in any of those conversations are kids actually taught about safe sex. They don't learn how to protect themselves from STIs, unwanted teenage pregnancies, HIV, etc. In my own experience, I came from a school district that didn't necessarily advocate for safe sex/sex education, but it wasn't completely abstinence only. We had our 8th grade health class that taught us about drugs and an overview of sexual diseases and contraception, but it wasn't until my sophomore year that I learned anything of value.

In my second semester that year, I was continuing with my Aerobics class, and one day a week we would take the day off from exercising and learn about healthy food choices, etc. One day, my teacher surprised us by bringing in a gynecologist to talk to us about contraception. She felt that because we were all there to learn how to take care of our bodies, we should have the knowledge to make safe choices for ourselves, and that included knowing about our options. We all got handouts with information regarding the most common types of contraception, from condoms to diaphragms to cervical caps to 'The Pill,' and the gynecologist even brought in a few examples and passed them around so we would know what they looked like. This was the first time, outside of lunch table conversations with my friends, that I'd actually learned something about my options regarding birth control.

I am pro-choice. I think a woman has a right to choose what happens to her body. I don't think anyone should be able to tell her what she can or cannot do. I think it's wrong when the ones making decisions about women's bodies are middle-aged (white) men who will never have to worry about getting pregnant. I think people need to be educated in regards to contraception before they become sexually active. I think it's complete idiocy to be pro-life and advocate for abstinence only education in schools...it's only going to make things worse in the end.

I am pro-choice, pro-life, pro-child, pro-woman.