The Melting Pot | In defense of choice: the true 'pro-life'

Katiera Sordjan | When it comes to reproductive rights, we cannot afford lazy reasoning or inaccuracies

By Katiera Sordjan 01/27/15 12:38am

Last Thursday, a column by Nursing junior Hannah F. Victor ran in the DP in light of the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. This Supreme Court case established that by extension of the 14th Amendment, a woman has the right to privacy, which includes her decision to abort her pregnancy. My issue with Victor's article, however, is that the claims made are not only factually inaccurate, but present a dangerous, unsupported view of the nature of abortion and women’s bodies.

Victor states that when a woman has an abortion, she may harm herself emotionally and physically. However, the true harm comes in the process leading up to an abortion and then being denied one. Many women may be emotionally disturbed by having to make the difficult decision to abort. In addition, global studies from the World Health Organization have proven that when legal, safe access to abortions is restricted, more women — and the unborn they carry — will die. If a woman feels trapped by her body, she will do whatever is necessary to free herself from that burden, resorting to illegal procedures and/or self-harm. “Pro-life”restrictions on legal abortions actually result in more injuries and deaths.

Many discussions of faith are introduced when discussing abortion. Victor argues that life begins at conception, a process that God oversees. However, many fail to recognize the high miscarriage rate in pregnancy, the body’s natural abortive process when complications arise. Of known pregnancies, up to 20 percent end in miscarriage. This rate greatly declines as the fetus develops into a viable human being who can survive outside of the womb and have legal protection. If a woman’s body can determine whether she is fit to have a child, why should a woman not be able to make that decision consciously within the same time period? In the earliest stages, an embryo is at best a potential for a human being rather than a fully autonomous one.

The idea of abortion as coercion is also completely unfounded. There are surely those who become pregnant who are pressured by partners or family to abort. But the real coercion and lack of informed consent comes from opponents of freedom of choice. Crisis pregnancy centers have emerged across the country with the intent of deceiving women about pregnancy and abortion in order to dissuade or outright scare them from seeking an abortion. Women are harassed on their way to abortion clinics by protesters. House Republicans have recently introduced a bill that would require women to have invasive ultrasounds before an abortion in order to guilt them out of the procedure. These mandates are already in place in states like Texas and Wisconsin. This follows an endless list of proposals and bills from mostly male politicians that restrict funding and access to abortions, infantilizing women and infringing upon their right to privacy and choice.

Victor suggests that the solution is as simple as carrying a child to full term and letting the adoption system take over. Yet childbirth remains a risk to a woman’s life — according to a 2014 Washington Post article, deaths from childbirth in the US are on the rise, and more common here than in countries like China, Saudi Arabia and Canada. The adoption system is also broken. LGBT+ couples historically have had difficulty adopting, and nearly 128,000 children in America will wait at least three years in the foster care system before being adopted, according to the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute website.

Emotion is not an excuse to argue without any factual basis or evidence for one’s position. If an opinion author’s intention is such, then that person should find another outlet for their views. Love is a thoughtful sentiment, but it is not the basis of law nor citizens’ rights. As an American, I know that my fellow citizens have a right to freedom of expression and religious practice. But I also recognize the right to privacy and the responsibility to treat women and all uterus-bearing people as more than incubators. My personal convictions and choices should not infringe on another person’s liberties. I invite Victor and others like her to consider a similar mindset.

KATIERA SORDJAN is a College junior from New York, studying communications. Her email address is skati@sas.upenn.edu.

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