Blog for Choice

Its Blog for Choice Day and this year NARAL has chosen the topic to be: why it is important to vote pro-choice.

I vote pro-choice for many reasons. Here are just a few. For one, I have friends who've had abortions due to domestic violence. I have friend who chose to have one due to being raped. I have a friend who chose an abortion at 17 because she knew she couldn't provide for a child and the incarcerated father wouldn't be able to help her. They are all extremely difficult decisions for women AND men. My brother still has a difficult time with the topic due to a decision he made with a girlfriend at a young age. I vote pro-choice because I feel that one should have the right to make such an emotional decision and its not my place to make that decision for them by pushing my personal beliefs or restricting services. It is not my place to judge these decisions either. I vote pro-choice because I understand that events may occur in our lives (such as domestic violence, partner-rape, or rape) that are beyond our control.

I also don't want women to die. I remember reading about these women and more prior to Roe v. Wade and even after the decision, even today. Women still do not have access to these services.

Which brings me to another reason why I vote pro-choice because anti-choice laws disproportionately affect young women, women of color, low-income women and women who live in rural areas. There are seven providers in Idaho according to one source, and another states that rural women in Idaho have to travel for options. The Guttmacher Institute also states that 93 percent of Idaho counties have no abortion provider.

Finally, I vote pro-choice because women should be trusted to make their own decisions. I am not and never will be in any position to tell a woman what is best for her and her family. Its my body, therefore my choice.