Image and quote courtesy of Mistress Dragonflame, who is amazingly awesome. <3
I've decided that one thing I'll do while I'm lazing around our house over the summer is make one post every week or so (maybe every two weeks) on some sort of political issue. Not always a whole issue; for example, today's post is on one particular argument from one side of an issue (that issue being abortion). But it will be something pertaining to politics.
Today's topic: That oh-so-cutesy pro-life slogan "Smile, your mom chose life."
It ties in with a few other pro-life arguments--"What if your mom had aborted you?" comes to mind. It's a plea to the opponent's own life; it is used to tug on the proverbial heart strings of the pro-choicer. What if you had been aborted? You wouldn't be here. How sad, huh? You wouldn't want to not exist, would you? How scary.
The argument, of course, fails to take note of the fact that no one can go back in time and make your mom have an abortion. If you exist now, you're here to stay. Playing around with "what ifs" is not a good argument (that goes for "it's a potential person" too), as it depends on nonexistent circumstances and not facts or reality. Just a "what if" scenario.
Back to the slogan. Obviously, my mom did choose life. I know for a fact that she did. I'm here, aren't I? But that's not all there is to it. Just because you exist right now doesn't mean your mother chose life. She could have been forced into it. She may not have had any other option. I know my mom chose me because she has told me so. Heck, I was even planned for. But that isn't so for many, many people, especially in countries where abortion has all sorts of restrictions tacked onto it or is illegal.
A permutation of the phrase is more easily refuted. "Smile, your mom was pro-life." Actually, no she's not. My mother is pro-choice. Always has been. That phrase is based on the assumption that all pro-choicers get abortions, and all pro-lifers keep every pregnancy they get (which is not true). They miss the whole point of being pro-choice: A pro-choicer believes that women should have the right to choose whether or not to continue a pregnancy. Yes, this involves keeping abortion legal, safe and easy to access. No, that does not mean we all flock to the clinic on weekends to get the contents our our uteruses sucked out. We are for women having a choice when it comes to pregnancy. We don't lean one way or other with the two options. We celebrate a woman's right to choose and we work to keep the two choices available.
So, why do I smile? Not because my mother chose life. Not because my mother was pro-life personally. But because she had the choice to choose life.
