Celebrate life! On being both Pro-Choice and Pro-Life

January 28th marks the 20th anniversary of the Supreme Court Decision of Canada’s decision to declare Canada’s abortion law as unconstitutional. The law was "found to violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it infringes upon a woman's right to "life, liberty and security of person."

This gave women a cause to celebrate life because their personal right to life, liberty and security of person was recognized and protected in the area of reproductive freedom. It also acknowledged women as individuals responsible for their own actions and capable of making decisions on their own behalf.

Unfortunately, some people are still opposed to this women’s right and fight to have it removed. They present numerous arguments, all couched under the slogans: Right to Life and Pro-Life. They want us to fight this battle all over again and remove women’s right to "life, liberty and security of person" in the area of reproductive freedom.

Some doubtlessly believe that all life is sacred and are on a moralistic, often religious based mission to criminalize abortion in order to protect the foetus and zygote because they consider those to be living human beings entitled to the same rights as humans outside of the womb. They believe the rights of the foetus should exceed the woman’s right to "life, liberty and security of person."

Others who want to abolish abortion have other motives. This shows itself through the reasons they give for why the Court decision should be overturned. Here are a few of those faulty arguments, and why they have nothing to do with Pro-Life:

The number of abortions in Canada is roughly the same as the number of immigrants we take in: this reason has nothing to do with pro-life and everything to do with racism. It implies that if Canadian women were forced to complete all pregnancies, then we wouldn’t have to take in foreigners.

If a woman fools around, she should take responsibility for it: again, this has noting to do with pro-life but rather with the desire to punish women for sexual activity. Sluts should pay. What this argument fails to take into account is that a woman’s right to chose automatically places the onus of responsibility on her, as she has to make, and shoulder the consequences of whatever she decides.

Abortion is selfish: This has nothing to do with pro-life but is purely a moralistic judgement which is also inaccurate. Many women have abortions for completely unselfish reasons - to provide better for the family they already have, to prevent grief in their own family, or because they know they are not ready to be a good, responsible parent at that time. Furthermore, being selfish is not a crime.

What would have happened if Ghandi’s mother, or your mother decided to have an abortion?: The problem here, besides this not being a pro-life argument, is two-fold - had the abortions happened, we would not know the difference since the person would not have existed. It’s like painting a fantasy history based on the outcomes of having stopped all abortions throughout time. Secondly, it assumes that all births result in a person who does only good. You could as easily ask what would have happened if John Wayne Gacey’s mother, or Hitler’s mother, or Bin Laden’s mother had decided to have an abortion.

Some women can’t have babies but want them: Not a pro-life argument, but a forced breeding one. This reduces women to little more than a uterus to produce babies for couples who want them.

All babies are wanted babies: If this were true, there would be no children up for adoption. Few people would want to adopt a crack baby, for example.

Women are irreparably damaged by abortion: women have the right to deal with crisis in any fashion they choose. They have the right to grieve, to question their choices, to make mistakes, to make good choices. They have the right to be depressed and to get help. They do not need to be protected as though they were feeble children and treating them as such only compounds the problems they face in life.

People who have abortions will go to hell: not a pro-life argument, and is not one fit to determine laws in a country where church and state are separate. (Besides, unlike suicide, murder - if someone considers abortion murder - is forgivable and does not condemn the person to hell if they ask for forgiveness and repent.)

Abortion is murder: while this does directly support a pro-life stance, it is faulty because murder is determined by law, and our law does not consider abortion murder. It also pre-supposes that a foetus and a zygote are human beings, something that does not have a clear answer in and of itself and so can only be determined by law, for reasons of classification necessary to make laws.

Other bad arguments and tactics of the pro-life movement -

If you are not pro-life, you are pro- death, or anti-life: this is a ridiculous, massively dishonest statements meant to induce blind hatred toward those who support a woman’s right to choose. Anyone but seriously disturbed psychopaths are pro-life. Many pro-choice people are vehemently opposed to the death penalty, and demand serious debate and scrutiny before sending troops into war.

Pro-choice is pro-abortion and promotes abortion: another dishonest statement. Pro-choice means the right to decide to either have an abortion or not. Pro-choice equally defends a woman’s right to carry through with a pregnancy.

Twenty years ago, women rightfully gained the right to choose for themselves whether or not to have an abortion. They gained the right to choose without having to plead their case. The right to choose without having to justify to anyone else the reasons for their choice. This right has given women more that the ability, under law, to have an abortion. It has helped to acknowledge their rights and abilities to function as independent citizens. It has helped them in their fight for independence and equality, assuring them that they are not feeble creatures incapable of making responsible choices.

A self-proclaimed pro-lifer once wrote in my comments section that the feminist, pro-choice stuff is getting old, is so sixties, and I should give it a rest. As long as anyone tries to take away women’s right to abortion, pro-choice advocates will not give it a rest. My generation, the next and the next will always have people who respect a person’s right to choose, a person’s right to determine their own choices under the law and based on their own values - not those dictated by ideological groups, and we will aggressively defend this right.