In last month’s issue of the Manitoban, in a piece entitled “Why I believe women deserve better,” a Comment article defended the importance of the New Abortion Caravan, an organized group who recently visited Winnipeg as one of their stops in a tour promoting an anti-abortion agenda.
In response to that article,. I think it’s important to address the fact that we all deserve better, but better is not something we can achieve by constraining our freedom of choice.
Being one of the people that showed up to protest at the Winnipeg appearance, I disagree that these images and method of pro-life activism are important or effective. I don’t think it is appropriate to park a caravan plastered with graphic images outside the Women’s Health Clinic in effort to try and get women to see what “a tragic mistake” they have made. Only a woman herself can decide whether she should carry the pregnancy to term.
Women obtain abortions for many reasons, such as sexual assault or to avoid severe medical complications,.Why do we have to constantly shame women who have decided what is best for them?
The physical and psychological implications of getting an abortion are discussed in this article as well. There are plenty of women that get abortions and don’t have psychological issues as a result of getting an abortion. If there wasn’t so much shame associated with getting an abortion, the amount of women that experience any psychological trauma would surely be reduced. It is hard to feel secure in your decision, even if it was the right one for you at the time, if there is constant shame associated with it and images are constantly shoved in your face about your “tragic mistake.”
As for the physical complications this article’s author Ms. Lucas speaks of, some believe there are circumstances where it is far more risky to carry a fetus for nine months and give birth than it would be to get an abortion. In Canada, over 90 per cent of Canadian women who get abortions do so before the 20-week cut off period. So maybe we should also be discussing the physical and psychological implications of carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term. The extra financial burden, the stigmatization of teen pregnancy, the toll it takes on a women’s body, and postpartum depression are all real things that should be taken into consideration when using the “physical and psychological implications” approach to this argument.
Finally, as for the title of the article, women do deserve better. I wish I lived in a world where no one had to get an abortion. For this to happen we would need to live in a world without rape, in a world where birth control is 100 per cent effective, and where appropriate sex education is available for everyone. We should be working towards these goals and building that world, rather than continuing this age-old debate that never seems to go anywhere.
It is not fair to push others’ beliefs onto an individual’s body. Women deserve to be fully autonomous human beings capable of their own decisions. Women deserve to live in a world where fear of sexual assault is not a concern. People deserve not to be provoked or meant to feel shame for their personal life decisions.
I am pro-choice, which means I support women who want to make whatever choice is best for them in their lives, whether it be an abortion or to carry the pregnancy to term. My uterus and I can make our own decisions about my life and reproduction, but thank you for your concern.
