The Worst Kind of Empowerment

As a woman who's been pregnant with my first child for a while now, it’s given me an entirely new perspective on the topic of abortion.

Of course, I’ve always been utterly against it. The notion of protecting the most vulnerable of our society is unquestionable to me.

But the last 25 weeks of puking, ultrasounds, and karate kicks I’ve experienced has left me with one haunting reality:

My daughter, who I’ve seen and felt grow, and move, and rub her eyes, is only alive and doing these things because I alone have allowed her to.

We live in a dangerous era where the value of human life is fickle. Abortion is legal, easily accessible, and highly encouraged by our society.

Worse still, the ability to end the lives of our children as long as they aren’t born yet is hailed by billions as a women’s right.

My pregnancy has made me acutely aware of the absolute power I have over the life or death of my child. In many parts of the world, I can still change my mind and pay an abortionist to kill her, no questions asked, if that’s what I wanted.

Obviously, that is not a power I am willing to abuse, but millions of women are willing and happy to do so without a second thought.

Currently experiencing pregnancy has made abortion all the more horrifying and urgent to fight against. Having full agency over someone else’s life is empowering, I’ll give pro-choicers that, but it’s empowering in all the wrong ways.

There are some things we as people simply should not have the legal power to do. Where do you draw the line? Why do I get to decide that the human my husband I created has to die to perpetuate a lifestyle I’m comfortable with? 

Even in the worst of circumstances, my daughter should have the right to exist in spite of my own whims and desires.

The pro-choice movement likes to paint those opposed to abortion as wanting to control women. The desire to protect the preborn is ignored and ridiculed in favor of this narrative, because if they were to acknowledge the humanity of a human fetus, their entire movement would fall apart.

I have dedicated more than half my short life to ending this legally-protected crime against humanity, but my own child has motivated me to ensure that NOBODY--man, woman, or government body--ever has such a cruel power over another again.