Abortion

A common argument against abortion is that a woman who is "old enough to have sex and get pregnant" is old enough to care for a child. I don't know how many of the people who use that argument have taken a course in child development or developmental psychology, but if I had to guess, my guess would be that few, if any, ever have. The average American female begins menstruating at age 13, last I checked. I doubt that a 13-year-old child would make a good parent; I do not doubt that a 13-year-old child could become pregnant. Some anti-choicers go so far as to argue that pregnancies caused by rape or incest should be carried to term; after all, "there is adoption." I beg to differ. No woman, child or otherwise, should be forced to carry a child to term if it is the product of an act of abuse or violence. The pregnancy would serve as a constant reminder of the attack, and the child, if no adoptive parents could be found, would spend its life as an unloved, unwanted child in an orphanage, or in a series of foster homes, or being cared for by its mother, who would more than likely hate it. Is this good for the child? The child would likely grow up to become not a productive, responsible member of society, but a link in a cycle of teenage pregnancy and child abuse, or worse. If a woman cannot have the option to spare herself and her fetus this fate, if it cannot even be on her list of choices, then she is not free. Men do not have to deal with the fear that comes from knowing that they could become pregnant from a rape. Women do. It is not the place of men to dictate women's lives, any more than it is the place of a woman to tell a man whether or not he can have a vasectomy. Women need the option, the choice to abort a child. Most women, I believe, would rather not have to live with the guilt and anguish that comes from knowing the consequences of their decision, but the decision must be there for them to make. Thank you.