What's in a Choice?

America is not, but was designed to be, a country of equal opportunity. All (wo)men are created equal, even if we do not all end up that way. Lost in the conversation about the various forms of inequality and discrimination that exist is the fact that while we cannot ensure that everyone ends up on equal footing, we must strive to give everyone the same opportunity.

This ideology underpins the entire American system. It applies to all facets of our lives, even though we have done a woeful job of making sure we are actually giving everyone an equal shot. Though I could take this conversation a number of directions, today I want to talk about choice as it applies to the one thing we should have the most control over, our minds and bodies.

I'm talking today about a woman's right to choose, or her lack thereof, about what she can and should do with her body. I am not a woman. I will never have to make a decision about an abortion, but I cannot fathom a "free" country, in which 50% of the population is denied the opportunity to decide what should happen to their bodies. Forget freedom from being spied upon by the government, forget the freedom to choose which school to attend or which job to pursue or who to date, in the America that some seek to forge, we would deny half the population the right to decide what to do with their bodies.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think we should be encouraging abortions, and I certainly don't think we should be allowing them when they are medically unsafe or after a certain point. For example, I am fine with a ban on partial birth abortions. But to deny a woman the right to choose what to do with her body strikes me as the ultimate infringement on civil liberties. If we really want to cut down on abortions - and I think we should try to discourage abortion - then we should do it by empowering people, not by limiting them. I think that MORE access to Planned Parenthood clinics would help reduce abortion. After all, aren't unplanned pregnancies more likely to result in abortions than planned pregnancies? Shouldn't we be encouraging contraception, safe and smart sex, and access to healthcare as a means to avoid unwanted pregnancies and thus abortions? Doesn't that make sense?

I recently had a conversation with a female friend and a very intelligent one at that, and she made the point that when talking about being pro-life, the one person EVERYONE can agree is alive is a to-be mother. We can debate when a life begins, but I think we all agree that a mother is certainly alive. Isn't it her right as an American citizen, as a human being, to be able to decide what to do with her body? Is not the choice, whether it be abstinence or sexual activity, hers to make?

I think limiting abortions should be a policy initiative, I just think it should be one we pursue through empowerment, not by mandating the choices a woman can or cannot make with her body. After all, what's left of the freedom we think we hold so dear if we're not even willing to allow a woman to have the freedom of choice to determine what she is allowed to do with her body? What's in a choice? How about the foundation upon which our whole country rests, the belief that we are all created equal, and that when we are empowered and allowed to make the decisions we believe are best for us, then we can make a better country and a better world.