The Abortion Debate: Is It Even Relevant?

            Every time I drive past people protesting outside clinics that provide abortions, my entire body begins to shake in anger.  I want to unroll the window and yell obscenities or flip them off.  I have managed to restrain myself, but am often left regretting not calming myself down enough to engage them in a discussion. 

            Seeing those people with signs, denouncing the decisions of women stuck in a nightmarish position makes me sick.  They have no idea what these women have gone through.  Maybe the woman walking into that clinic desperately wants her child, but some medical condition has made an abortion necessary.  Maybe she was raped and the trauma of the abuse has led her there.  Maybe she is a single mother who already has children at home who she is financially unable to support.  There are so many reasons for a woman to turn to abortion, and she should not be publically judged and harassed by those who know nothing of her situation on what is likely the most difficult day of her life.

But more than that, when I see those picketers I think about what Canada would look like if abortion was criminalized right now.  If abortions were illegal, we’d go back to the days of women dying after having ‘back alley’ abortions, or because they were unable to obtain an abortion their life depended on.  We would more quickly race towards the impending population crisis.  People living in underdeveloped countries will be the first to be affected by food shortages.  Underdeveloped countries are also affected more by global warming than developed countries, a problem that will be aggravated by an increase in population that will result if abortion is criminalized.  Is it fair to force the birth of unwanted babies in developed countries at the expense of the underprivileged?  I think not.  And all those unwanted babies would be dumped into adoption and foster programs which would place incredible strain on an already overloaded system.  The criminalization of abortion has been linked to increases in crime rates, so this is something else that would have to be dealt with if anti-choicers got their way.  As a Winnipegger, an increase in crime in a city already rot with crime, is a scary thought.

            So, for now at least, I'm a pro-choicer.  I am passionate about making birth control accessible for everyone so unwanted pregnancies just don’t happen in the first place.  I care deeply about issues of population growth and environmental damage and will work to educate people about living more sustainable lives.  I am very concerned about all the children being raised without stable, loving parents to steer them away from crime and will speak out about the benefits of adoption.  Once all these issues are dealt with, I might be willing to re-examine my stance on abortion and decide that in some cases abortion is morally wrong and should maybe be criminalized in certain circumstances.  But until then, I just wish the anti-choice picketers would put down their signs and find a cause to fight that would actually have a positive impact on this world.