Reproductive rights are more than a choice

Every time I drive home to my heavily religious state, I pass signs saying things like “Smile, your mom chose life” or “When an abortion happens two hearts break”. Seeing these when I was younger didn’t mean anything to me but now that I’m old enough to have an opinion these billboards annoy me. 

I’d like to preface this with the fact that I am Catholic, and was raised Catholic in the belief that all abortions are wrong. As I’ve grown and become more educated, it’s harder to see in that black and white. Abortions are very rarely the flippant decision I was originally taught to believe they were. 

Abortions don’t just happen because someone didn’t use protection, there are many valid reasons to have an abortion. Sometimes abortions are a choice of whether or not you want the mom to live. 

In the case of ectopic pregnancies the baby will not live, but if the pregnancy is not aborted and the mother is not taken care of, she will die. Abortions can be for medical reasons or because they cannot afford to take care of a baby or do not have the support to do so. 

Now some people would say that the woman can carry the baby to term and then give it up for adoption. This would ideally be a good way to keep the baby alive and allow it to not matter what the mom’s financial status is.

 The issue I have with that is the absolute havoc having a baby puts on a mom whether they keep it or not, and the fact that the foster care and adoption systems are broken. 

Firstly having a baby can literally rip a woman open during pregnancy, and if that’s not terrifying then I’m not sure what is. 

That’s just one possible consequence of having a baby to term,  there are so many more. Some including: anemia, UTIs, new mental health issues, high blood pressure, diabetes, weight gain, infection, morning sickness, the fetus might not even be born healthy, placental issues, preeclampsia, not to mention how any possible pre-existing conditions can very negatively affect a mother’s health during pregnancy. 

The issues I just listed are just what can happen during pregnancy, more issues can arise after pregnancy. But its made out to seem like its not that big of a deal to carry  out a pregnancy. 

My issue with the adoption system is that it costs somewhere in between $15,000 to $40,000 to be able to adopt according to U.S. News. It is important to find good families for these children, but I don’t think financially draining the families that are searching helps that. 

If a baby is adopted its common that they will face a large amount of mental health issues but if they aren’t fortunate enough and are placed in a foster care system it’s even worse. 

There are more than 23,000 children that age out of the system every year, and once they age out at 18, 20% will be homeless, half of the aged out children will be employed by 24, and less than 3% of the aged out population will ever earn a college degree, according to the National Foster Youth Institute. 

So I ask who does forcing a woman to have a child benefit? 

If after looking at these statistics and how harmful a pregnancy can be, you still wish you could stop all women from having abortions, I leave you with this: It’s not up to you and you aren’t paying for it. If it goes against your religion than don’t have an abortion yourself, and there are laws that stop your tax dollars from funding any abortions. You can disagree with the decision but you have to respect that it’s not yours to make for them.