Choosing Life

I'm not sure who will click on this blog post based on the title, but I'm sure you can guess the subject if you are reading this during May 2022. 

This will be short. I just want to take a quick minute to share my thoughts and if I can help persuade someone to see a different perspective, then even better. 

I feel like the country has become increasingly polarized over the past few years, and I know I'm not the first one to make that observation. 

I've reflected a lot on the subject of Roe v Wade this past week, as I'm sure many people have. I live in a very conservative state, although, I was raised in a more liberal state. So, I feel like I've been able to see a wide range of opinions over the internet. Many I agree with, few I disagree with. 

I hear one side rallying for the unborn, fearing that these vulnerable beings will not have a chance at life. However, I do not ever hear the other side rallying together to commit murder, because they are also rallying for life, just at a different stage. 

Although both sides seem to have villainized one another, I know that in their hearts they believe that they are fighting for the right thing. I also think that we are all more united in this than it may seem. 

Even in Utah, a 2020 poll showed that most people "either supported loosening the state’s abortion laws or leaving them the same" (https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2020/02/24/poll-most-utahns-would/). I have tried to find more recent polls, but the 2020 poll is the most recent I could find. 

As backwards as it sounds, I would not be alive if abortion were illegal (yes, not legal). Some years before I was born, my mom experienced a miscarriage. Over the years she experienced 3 miscarriages. Her first she experienced after 12 weeks of pregnancy from unknown causes, and her third was an ectopic pregnancy. During the second, after about 5 months of pregnancy, the baby died inside of her. It had died weeks before they caught it. The doctors tried to induce labor, but nothing worked. If the fetus remained, she would have died. According to her doctors, the procedure they then performed would have been illegal if abortion were illegal. Through it all she lost so much blood, it is still a miracle that she lived. My brother and I were both born after this miscarriage. 

I am grateful for my life. I'm happy to be here. I'm grateful to live in a country that is not so extremist that it would allow a woman to die, because she could not go into labor after the fetus had already died inside of her. I am also grateful for modern medicine. 

That being said, I do not know every person's circumstance, and none of us ever will. I do not endorse abortion, but I hope that the resources and the option to choose is never taken away. Allowing women to choose, is still choosing life.