The Cell Games!

           This isn't a piece about Dragon Ball Z. If you clicked this link because it ended up in your google search, I apologize. Don't get me wrong, I love the show, and of course the title is directly inspired from the anime which engulfed the lives of many during the 90s. Today I am literally focusing on actual cells, and not the indestructible green android. I attempt to tackle the topic of abortion. I am very much pro choice. I've been looking forward to this piece for a while now. I've come up with several points as to why pro choice is the right choice. I feel it's important to look at this from several angles. Why the big uproar over a cluster of cells inside a human being? That's the question I plan on answering. It's a lengthy read, so hang in there. However, it is a very big topic which affects millions.

            The first point has to be on the status of life, and what rights a fetus has. When people talk about their basic human rights, what they are referring to whether they know it or not is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 1 of this declaration states “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” The key here is they are born into rights. The rights we speak of aren’t granted from conception. No where can you find in the UDHR does it state conception. The idea of rights at conception has no roots in any of the three major religions either, so we can’t even blame that for the ridiculous concept. Even the Bible clearly states that life begins once you start breathing (Genesis 2:7). Not that I hold the bible in any regard, but the point is there is no valid argument for anyone to determine that a fetus has rights over a woman.

            When it comes to the topic of life, all forms of animal life, which is considered a true living creature does not require only one other specific being to continue living. A premature child doesn't depend solely on it's mother to live. The mother could die, and doctors could nurse the child. Can the same be said for a fetus less than 2 months? It is solely dependent on the mother. It cannot under any circumstance survive without her. 

            What is life, which we consider important, and life, which we consider not important? I mean a plant is alive, animals, which many eat, were alive, your cells are alive. The very sperm males use to create a fetus are alive as well. They all exhibit characteristics of living such as being created, growing, and dying.  I don’t believe people lose their minds over the loss of the millions of sperm which perish after some teenage boys alone time in his bedroom. Many eat animal eggs which are also fertilized, the same as a human embryo, but yet we don’t seem to have much of an issue.

            Why then do we romanticize a fetus? It's a cluster of cells which can potentially grow into a child. Most abortions happen legally within the first few weeks of the pregnancy when the fetus isn't even recognizable as a human. Well, it’s the same way we rationalize eating some animals and not eating others. We justify that some animals are too smart, or too cute to eat. Many people would be offended to know there are bunny farms out there, which grow them only for food. Why is “Hopper” more valuable than the McNuggets millions are scarfing down? It’s what they were raised to think, nothing more. I myself have no intention of eating rabbit. However, I understand it’s an animal and being that human beings eat meat, Thumper is equal opportunity to Foghorn depending on where you live! We do the same thing with unborn children. “But it’s a baby!”, or “It’s the miracle of life”, or “It’s going to be so cute!”. False, it’s nature. We as humans are no more special when we are a fetus, than any other life form on this planet.

            We have evolved to a point where we are on top of the food chain and we rule

over the other animals in a sense. However, that simply allows us to survive by preventing other creatures from offing us in attempts to take over our territory. We are not any more special than animals, we are just above them on the evolutionary scale. Bottom line is it is very hypocritical to value the life of a human fetus because it is a life form, while you are going for your third plate at the buffet table because the crab legs are in season.  

            My next point deals with accepting the inevitable. Women are going to get pregnant; it's a fact of life. People have sex, and condoms can break, and some people are just more fertile than others! Nearly half of the pregnancies in North America are unplanned. A bunch of these chicks aren't financially able to care for a child. So what’s a woman to do? Her options are abort legally, abort illegally, or a life of suffering where she is unable to offer a child a proper environment. Making abortion illegal doesn't stop women from going through illegal, and unsafe means. The other option would be adoption! People like to throw that card in to try to prove their point because it’s an easy fix for a mother who doesn’t want the child. However when you consider that less than 5% of women who have unwanted children turn to adoption. The shame of giving up a child and then facing their family and friends can be emotionally scarring. On top of that the separation anxiety from a being they have now given room and board inside their body for 9 months can be psychologically devastating.

This is all before we consider that if abortion is such a wonderful option, then why the hell are there so many children in the system waiting to be adopted? Nearly 30K children each year in the US turn 18 and are released from Foster care before ever getting adopted. Average child who gets adopted is 8 years old. Who takes care of them until then? More kids are added to the system each year than are actually adopted. It's about a 12,000 split. So what of those children who didn't get adopted? This is just another form of hypocrisy the pro-lifers have. They preach adoption, yet very few have ever adopted a child. Ask them why they haven’t and they may say “Well our family is as large as we want it to be!”. Exactly! Now you understand how someone who has an abortion feels. Unless they are in line adopting a couple kids each year, and doing their part to have kids out of foster care, they are a part of the problem, which they’ve created.

Let’s touch up on the side effects of having a child in a less than planned situation as well. It is far more likely for a child to grow up to be a healthy member of society when they are born into a family where they were actually wanted or at least welcomed because the family has the means to take care of it. Children emulate the environments they see. If they are in an unstable environment, which is caused by their sudden arrival, they can grow up repeating the cycle. Many kids are born to a poor mother, while the dad takes off and has very little contact with the child. Are we at all surprised when that same child grows up and runs out on child support for his own child later in life because it is the pattern of behavior he observed? Very likely one would say “Typical!” Of course that isn’t a guarantee, but it is highly possible because we emulate what we see as a child.

The most important point that MUST be discussed when it comes to abortion is the right for a woman to choose what she does with her own body. We already understand what human rights talk about when we mention it. However, it feels like people forget that those very rights protect women from being forced to alter their bodies against their wills. Pregnancy isn’t a quick thing. It’s a nine-month (hopefully) commitment which dramatically alters a females very structure. Their hips are altered, spines change curvature, feet swell, bust swells, and weight gain is inevitable. Suppose a women doesn’t want that for her own body? Why is it she is a slave to consequences while men are not?

You often hear the argument “If they didn’t want to have kids then they shouldn’t have sex.”. That is absolutely ridiculous. That question completely ignores the various scenarios outside of the assumed one of the young girl who is having fun exploring her sexuality, and happens to get pregnant. What about the married couple who’ve already had 4 children, and have no intentions of having another? What if they don’t have the financial means to support a fifth child? Are they simply not allowed to have sex anymore? Take the woman who is a fitness model, she makes money by having her picture taken of the work of art she has carefully sculpted. Having a child would greatly affect her income. Is she not allowed to have relationships with men because of the risk her condom may break? How about the couples who simply don’t want kids? Are they never allowed to copulate with each other to satisfy everyone else’s ridiculous need to feel good because no cluster of cells were harmed? There is a 30 something year old woman right now doing her second or third degree to be a doctor of something awesome, and she dedicates countless hours for her to be at the top of her field when she graduates. Having a child at this stage would simply put a big damper on her career aspirations. Is she doomed to be a penis free zone until she gets her degree?

You also have to address the issue of contraception. There are many people who do everything right in order to not procreate. However, no form of contraception is 100% effective. Condoms break, birth control pills can fail because we are dealing with biology, pulling out is risky business. Even if every single person did the responsible thing and always used contraception, it would not eliminate unwanted pregnancy. Abortion would still have to be an option for individuals. There are simply too many people who like the company of the opposite sex.

Lets address another point connected to the contraception issue; that is the notion that rape victims and abuse victims. You hear it often from some of the pro-lifers that a rape victim should be allowed to abort because they never asked to have a child, and there is emotional consequences that could develop from forcing a woman to carry the child of their rapist. This is a hypocritical view from the ones who claim “Human rights of the fetus”. In one instance they argue that the fetus didn’t choose to be created, and it has no voice itself to decide. However, in the other instance you completely ignore this very premise and solely focus on the female. Why does the fetus now all of a sudden not matter in the equation? What determines when the voiceless suddenly has no rights over the woman, and when it has all authority? It’s hypocrisy and most don’t realize it. You romanticize the cute little thing because you judge the woman for not taking precautions, while the other one you completely absolve her of any sin for removing the fetus because you believe she was wronged. The difference is how judgmental someone is. It all comes down to society placing their own values on others. Denying abortion is their way of punishing the person because they feel they literally “Fucked up”. There are of course those who don’t care if someone was raped, and as silly as they are, I will say they are at least consistent, the same way a vegan is consistent about aborting human life is wrong. This leads me to my next point…

The religious reasoning! Religion, in as simple as I can explain, is BULLSHIT. There is no proof of god, no proof of any holy texts being real, none, zip, squat, nada. If that's someone’s platform at all, because the “bible said so”, let me remind you the bible and Koran, as examples, call for murder, rape, torture, misogyny, and various other glorious acts; which are just a “little” worse than abortion. There is a reason the US government and many governments are secular. You are allowed to believe in the magical space daddy, but it can't be used to mandate law. Anyone quoting religion as a reason, therefore, should just be dismissed as a clown in the background. You can have your holy book and drink all the purple drink you want, but it doesn’t allow you to impose that on anyone else. A high majority of believers don’t even conform to their religion completely. I know jews who eat pork, don’t observe the Sabbath, and date gentiles. There are christians who have premarital sex, wear mixed fabrics, allow women to teach, and have yet to bash a child against a rock. Why then should any of their laws, and misinterpretations of the books be taken seriously, when it’s obvious they cherry pick themselves. Again, even then, none of the books support anti-abortion!

Abortion is different from every other social issue currently on the table such as racism, gay rights, or women’s rights. When the civil rights movement happened, and blacks were given equal rights, the entire society had to adapt. White people now had to deal with the fact their children would have to share schools, the workplace dynamic would be altered with the inclusion of another race, and people had to change their actions towards each other or face the legal consequences. Gay rights affected the landscape because now families had to start thinking about how to educate their children on the subject. Parents had to now deal with the fact their state would allow their children to share classrooms with homosexuals. The entire landscape of what people see in the day to day would be affected, not necessarily in a negative way, but things change. Women’s rights changed the world in many ways. Allowing women to vote changed the way politicians would campaign, men would compete with women for jobs, women could drive. The way of life people were accustomed to were changed completely.

            So then comes abortion. Literally, abortion changes nothing. It affects no one outside of the actual potential mother, and the potential father. The only two and possible three people involved would be the couple, and the lab technician. I’m almost certain the lab tech isn’t going to go home and cry themselves to sleep each night because of all the children they destroyed! The couple may feel some guilt, and that’s completely human, however, it doesn’t make them monsters. This fight against abortion is the most intrusive of all the issues, even more than religion. A theist can say others actions which goes against their lifestyle directly affects them. Whites were forced to interact with blacks. Homophobes would have to live in a world where excess glitter, lime green suits, and assless chaps were considered ok in public. No one is inconvenienced because their neighbours decision to terminate a pregnancy.

Just remember there is a friend, colleague, or even a family member who likely had an abortion, and you’d never know about it! How will you know who to judge, and who to treat like a person? You literally have no way of knowing. Thousands of mothers will never know their baby eliminated their first potential grandchild. At the end of the day, it really isn’t anyone’s business! If you are against abortion, simply don't get one!