MOTHERHOOD

This I believe. Motherhood is a big step. It should be by choice and not force or chance.

Many women risk their lives to end a pregnancy that is unintended or dangerous . It is indeed a difficult decision to make. I believe that these women aren't doing it just because it is a convenient thing to do but they are doing it due to pressing life circumstances.
In 2001, there were 6.4 million pregnancies in the US. Of which 3.1 million were unintended. 44% of the unintended pregnancies ended in a live birth while 42% ended in an abortion.[1] That would mean that if abortion were illegal, about 1.3 million women in the US would have no choice in the matter of their own reproductive rights. It would also mean that women and mothers getting illegal abortions would be criminalized and possibly be sent to jail. This website asks anti-abortion activists the question, " If abortion is illegal, what should the penalty be?"

While it is safe to say that most women these days use atleast one method of contraception, some of those methods are not very effective. Suffice it to say that while we do need to improve accessibility and generate awareness about these methods, it does not make much sense to take away the right of a woman to decide whether she is capable of sustaining another life.

A lot of pro-life activists say that abortion is the taking of a life but refuse to realize that no woman would go through the process unless she had absolutely thought about what she was doing.

This I believe. Abortion, for many, is a difficult choice to make. It should however remain.....a choice.

Dorothy Fadiman was taken to the ER because of a botched illegal abortion after her doctor refused to provide her with a safe abortion.

In 1991 she created an award winning trilogy "From the Back-Alleys to the Supreme Court and Beyond" that covers the abortion rights issue beginning from the time when it was illegal through the struggle for legalizing it to the current situation and the fight to keep it legal.
You can watch the important extracts of the trilogy (27 min) or the whole thing (about 2 1/2 hrs) here .
If you are pro-choice this documentary will help deepen your understanding of why the protection of this choice is imortant.
If you are pro-life, please take 30 min to listen to the other side of the story and understand what women go through.

----Megha (08/23/08)