What I saw in an abortion clinic many years ago at the cusp of the women’s movement, was pain, vomiting, blood, tears, nonchalance, repeaters, calm and fear, regrets and gratitude, justifications. I saw only one man that showed up to be with his woman for her procedure. Before you stereotype, they were a black couple. The rest of most of the women in the clinic were white. At the time I was pro-choice and I stood by my friend without wavering. Years later, in my first pregnancy, I felt my son move inside of me for the first time. It filled me with an awe of such magnitude, I realized that what was inside of me was a “life;” not a mass of tissue, but a miracle; a new human being that I had helped to create and was responsible for. After my first sonogram where I heard my son’s heart beating, I literally floated home; I do not remember walking. Had I known what the procedure was going to be, I would have had my husband there with me. He was sorry he missed it too, so he went with me the next time. What a gift to someone who actually never received any “real” sex education in school. How times have changed.

As an aside, it’s interesting to me that pro-choicers are often also the same crusaders that are animal rights activists, anti-death penalty activists, anti-war activists, and/or global warming fear mongers. Animals are more intelligent than and therefore have more rights than humans; killers have historical circumstances beyond their control and therefore have more rights than their victims; enemies of this nation disagree with or were victims of our policies and therefore have more rights than our own citizens; every weather problem is our fault, dammit and, if you disagree, you are an uneducated dolt, to hell with the cost to fix what’s probably normal and unavoidable earth changes. The fatal outcomes of these causes might not be their stated intents, but are certainly often results caused by liberal actions.

Pro-lifers are automatically assumed to be right wing religious fanatics and therefore easily and often dismissed. My belief is, if you are going to throw how-to-do-it-education and condoms at kids in school, on TV, and in the movies, then be honest with them about what exactly it is they are doing: creating a human life that they must then decide if they will protect or destroy. Give kids reasons to be responsible with whatever choices they make. Well, having said that, would I have listened to anyone at that age? Perhaps; perhaps not. I admit I was very naive and also at times very lucky. But not getting all sides of the story, all facts of the features, that is the greater threat. And when the “choice” issue came out when I was walking into the golden age of women’s liberation, the fact that it was a “life” was certainly not provided. Thank God I never had to make that “other” choice.