In the student blog post titled "Abortion: A Hot Topic" on the blog "Contemporary America" the author discusses the controversial topic of abortion and presents her opinion, as someone who is pro-life, on the subject. She provides her own personal history of being adopted and of also making the decision to place a baby up for adoption herself, as an alternative to abortion. She also comments on how stricter abortion laws should be put in place and makes the statement that only God should decide the fate of these lives. While I respect her position of being pro-life and the opinions she has presented, I wanted to present another side to this discussion. The following is the commentary that I posted in response to her article:
I commend you on your decision to give your baby up for adoption after deciding that you were not in a position to raise her. As a mother myself, I cannot imagine what a difficult decision that must have been. But I have friends that are going through the adoption process right now after years of being unable to conceive, and this would, of course, not be possible if there weren’t women out there who made your same selfless decision. I also have friends that were adopted themselves, and I am certainly grateful that their birth parents choose to carry them to term and allowed them to be adopted by wonderful people who could give them a better life than they felt they could give themselves.
With that said, I also respect my friends that have had to make the difficult decision to terminate a pregnancy, for whatever reason. And there are many reasons that women have to make this decision. Yes, there are women who choose this as a method of birth control. Unfortunate, yes, but it is their body and their decision on what happens to it. There are women who become pregnant as a result of being raped and choose not to carry the fetus to term – forced rape, raped under the influence, incest – regardless of how it happened, something happened that was beyond their control and they do have the right to control what happens to their body as a result. There are cases where there is damage to a fetus – be it genetic or environmental – that is irreversible and perhaps the parents do not want their child to live a life that revolves around the daily struggles that come with having severe disabilities or mental incapacitation. Unfortunately, this is an experience that my husband and I had to live through and made the difficult decision to terminate. And then, of course, there are the cases where the mother’s life is at risk and terminating the pregnancy may be her only chance for survival. Yes, I have heard the story of Tim Tebow and how his mother went against her doctor’s advice and chose to carry him to term. Yes, this is a wonderful story and I commend her actions and bravery for following through. I remember being pregnant with my daughter and thinking that I would do anything to ensure her survival, even if that meant my risking or losing my own life. And of course, I still feel that way. But I also now realize that I have the greatest responsibility in the world, as her mother, to ensure that she grows up safe, secure, and with both parents. So if I were pregnant again and was faced with a decision to have to terminate the pregnancy in order to save my own life, as difficult as it would be, that is the decision I would make to ensure that my daughter does not grow up without a mother.
My point is this...I respect the decisions that you have made. I also respect the decisions that some of my friends have had to make and the decision that I had to make. And whichever it was, you and I both know that these decisions – adoption, abortion, termination for medical reasons - were not made easily or lightly and those babies are never forgotten. There are many people that believe that abortion for ANY reason is selfish and want to take that medical right away from women. But just because a woman elects to terminate a pregnancy, it does not mean that she is doing it for selfish reasons. Abortion is a difficult decision, yes, but it is one that should left up to a woman and her healthcare provider and she should not have to feel judged by anyone, especially those who have not walked in HER shoes.
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