Pro Choice--It's Not Just about Abortion
I've been thinking a lot about the term "pro choice" for several months now, since I got more details from a woman, physically abused as a child, who I've been in touch with for a long time. Recently, she told me more about how much the abuse continued into her teenage years--not the physical abuse, but the emotional, extending to the abortion she was forced into right after Roe vs. Wade was passed. She had no choice at all, I realized, as she made herself vulnerable to tell me more. Her parents made the choice, and she has suffered the consequences ever since. She has beaten herself up over and over, still believing even now that if she'd only had the courage to stand up to them, she would not have gone thru with the procedure. In reality, she had no choice at all--even though she technically had "informed consent." What her parents have never known is how much she's grieved that lost child and how much she's blamed herself for "not st...