I am pro-choice. I am not pro-abortion. I understand that many women cannot raise a baby - whether it be mentally, financially, or whatever other reason. Yes, there's adoption, but there are so many children feeling unloved, not being properly cared for, or being devastatingly mistreated while waiting to be adopted. This is why I am pro-choice. I do not believe that it should be up to a few hundred wealthy congressmen and congresswomen in Capitol buildings to decide what a woman can or cannot do to her body.
The problem is that many pro-lifers care SO much about the fetus inside the womb, but after the baby is born all of the pro-lifers disappear. If you're pro-life, you should be pro-life outside the womb as well. If you're pro-life, you should be "pro" the following 10 things, as well.
1. Pro-Adoption
The Bystander Effect. When you notice an issue but you assume someone else will help, so you don't do anything. Everyone who encounters this issue assumes someone else will help, and in turn, the issue is never helped. Pro-lifers claim that every pregnant woman should give birth to her baby because she has options, like adoption. Although adoption is an option, it is very hard for every child to find a caring and loving home.
In addition, the adoption process is emotionally difficult, costly, and time-consuming. I personally plan to adopt because to give a child a loving home who needs it means so much to me, and imagine how much better our country would be if every stable family adopted one child who needed a home. If you're pro-life, you should strongly consider adoption.
2. Pro-Gun Control
No, not pro-let's ban all guns. Pro-gun control. Kids are dying at schools. Parents are sending off their kids on the bus not knowing whether they will see them or not by the end of the day. If you're pro-life, but anti-gun control, then you care more about a fetus than school-aged children, innocent movie-goers, and church worshippers.
Gun control is about stricter background checks, longer waiting periods before purchasing, and not manufacturing or selling AR-15s. If your background is clean then you have nothing to worry about. There is never a need to instantly purchase a gun. There is zero need for an AR-15 collection - try a new hobby like collecting keychains or something. If you're pro-life, then you should fight for stricter gun control.
3. Pro-Safety of Immigrant Children
How can you call yourself pro-life and at the same time be okay with children being kept in cages and separated from their families just because they're from another country?
4. Pro-Food Stamps
If a woman is unable to afford food for her and her child, she should receive no negativity when using food stamps. Pro-Lifers should be happy that their tax dollars are going to the food stamp program because that means that their money is partly going to a woman who needs to feed her child. If you're pro-life, you should support government resources being used to feed children in need.
5. Pro-Black Lives Matter Movement
People are being shot because of their skin color. It does not matter if they live in crime neighborhoods or upper-class suburban neighborhoods. It does not matter whether or not they have a criminal background. It does not matter whether they are holding their cell phone or a bag of skittles. They are being shot by the police for being seen as a threat, even if no immediate threat is present. They are being judged as dangerous by strangers on the street. Lives are being lost. If you're pro-life, you should be pro-black lives as well.
6. Pro-Planned Parenthood / Women's Health Clinics
Signs like "We Are The Pro-Life Generation" and "Defund Planned Parenthood" are ironically held up together. As seen in the picture above, Planned Parenthood offers many more services than abortions, services that save lives. Birth control helps many women with excruciating cramps, cancer screenings allow for earlier treatment, people can get tested for STDs, and much more.
In regards to the "Pro-Life Generation" wanting to defund Planet Parenthood: when women have affordable and easy access to birth control, such as through Planned Parenthood, it is less likely that they will become pregnant, and therefore not have an abortion if necessary. If you're pro-life, you should also be pro-women's health clinics.
7. Pro-Me Too Movement
Sexual assault can leave a woman with PTSD for the rest of her life. Many women don't report their sexual assaults because they're afraid that they won't be believed, or that other people will claim that they "wanted it." They are left without closure and without justice. Sexual assault victims' lives are forever changed, and instead of telling women how to dress, how much not to drink, or how not to act, we should be teaching men how to respect women and treat them like humans instead of objects for their disposal. If you're pro-life, you should be a part of the Me Too movement.
8. Pro-Affordable Health Care
Parents are going into debt paying outrageous medical bills to save their children's lives, people are dying from not being able to afford insulin, and others are avoiding going to the hospital for potentially life-saving treatment because it costs so much. If you're pro-life, you should want the best health care possible for every life.
9. Pro-Mental Health Matters
Mental health is still seen as a disability or a defect. It is seen as whining or laziness. When someone breaks a bone or tears an ACL, he or she is flooded with good wishes. When someone is experiencing a mental illness episode, he or she is often told to "suck it up" or to "get over it." The brain can become ill just like the body, but with body pain, one knows that he or she will heal. With brain pain, one does not know when it will get better. Mental illnesses are extremely difficult to deal with, especially because they can't be seen by others. If you're pro-life, you'll help people with mental illnesses be seen, accepted, and loved.
10. Pro-Human Rights
The fact that it's 2019 and some people still don't believe in basic human rights for every human makes me angry. Every human - no matter what skin color, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual preference, gender, etc. - deserves the same basic human rights. There are no exceptions and there is no tiered hierarchy in who gets what rights. Being pro-life should be about being pro-life for every person's life.
If you're pro-life, remember that it is pro-life, not pro-fetus. If you care so strongly about a fetus being born, you NEED to care just as strongly about that baby living a healthy, safe, and loving life after he or she is born. If you're pro-life, it only makes sense that you fight for the lives of people of all ages, races, genders, sexual orientations as well. If you don't care about the baby outside of the womb, then how can you truly be pro-life?
