Abortion has always been a controversial issue for me because it contradicts my religious beliefs, and personal preferences. Up until high school, I was always that person on the debate team who was against abortion. I thought, how can you kill a child? But the beliefs I had back than have drastically altered over time and experience. I still consider myself pro-life, but that label has attachments that I do not associate myself with.

I don’t believe abortion is murder. A fetus is not a living, breathing person. A fetus is not even “viable” (the term used to describe the ability to survive outside of the womb) up until the third trimester. This is why the majority of abortions take place in the first and second trimester unless it’s a medical emergency and the pregnant woman’s life is at risk. In order for a fetus to feel pain, its brain context must be completely developed. The cortex doesn’t become functional until about twenty-six weeks in the pregnancy; It has not biologically developed. Also because a fetus is not viable without it’s mother, then it’s not a person and you can’t murder someone who is not a person.

I don’t think it’s God’s Will. One thing that almost every religion has in common is the condemnation of abortion. I am a practicing Muslim, so I am fully aware of the Sharia law (Islamic Law) which prohibits abortion after a hundred and twenty days and is only permissible in relation to health and rape. In fact, most practiced religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Sikhism prohibit abortion. However, most religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Hinduism, also prohibit alcohol; which in my opinion, does actually endanger a living person. And if that hasn’t caused outrage, and international attention to outlaw bars and alcoholic beverages than neither should abortion.

Plus, shouldn’t we accommodate the living before we extend our concern to the unborn? Instead of defunding planned parenthood, and wasting resources on campaigns against abortion we should accommodate those that are actually alive. Approximately 800,000 children come in contact with Foster care every year, and despite attempted reform, the system remains broken. In one recent (2010) and widely publicized case, an ex-foster child took his previous foster parent to court on sexual abuse charges and was awarded $30 million in damages. The abuse reportedly happened while he was in the California foster care system for five years in the ’90s. The accused foster parent had been allowed to foster multiple kids despite criminal records of abuse, drug use, and drunk driving incidents. But that’s one out of the 28% of children in state care that have been faced sexual, emotional, or physical abuse due to the system. Elaine Morrall’s death, a recent case that has caused outrage, had her welfare payments stopped after missing an interview with officials. She died, wearing a coat and scarf, in a home she couldn’t afford to heat. She has four children that are now motherless. We can’t force women to have children, and be pro-life ONLY up until the child is born. If you want the child to be born, then you should make efforts to bring it into a world that it can be raised in a healthy and safe environment. In other words, let’s accommodate the thousands of women that are on welfare, the families in homeless shelters, and the children in foster care THAN concern ourselves with the welfare of a fetus.

What if the “baby” aborted could have grown up to cure cancer? This is my favorite argument against abortion because up until three years ago it used to be a question that echoed in classrooms during my presentations. What if the “next Einstein” is aborted? This question has partially extended itself to other questions. What if the cure of cancer is trapped in the head of a “banned” Muslim? What if the cure to cancer died with the young black boy who was murdered by another careless cop? What if it’s resting in the corner of a victim of a mass shooting? What if it’s confined with an adolescent who will eventually sign himself/herself to the US army because he/she cannot afford a college education? The truth is if the cure for cancer lies within the mind of an aborted child, it can easily lie in the minds of children who have fallen victim of circumstances that are preventable through adequate reform.

No Uterus = No opinion. If the debate on whether a woman should have reproductive rights, and control over their bodies is being discussed on a table that only men are seated at, then the problem starts there. No ovaries, means no opinion. Since this statement is misheard by some women in the means that because they had a fetus, they are entitled to make decisions for other women who did want to exercise this right, I want to clarify and rephrase; My fetus, My decision.

The truth of the matter is; Abortion is a personal choice. Just because it’s not a path that I would ever take, doesn’t mean I can go around telling other women what to do with their bodies. The way I see it, I am pro-life. I am pro-life in the sense that I care about the women who feel like they don’t have control over their bodies and reproductive rights. I am pro-life in the sense that I want the kids who are already in foster-care and adoption to be taken care of. I am pro-life because I value the living over the unborn. I am pro-life for the thousands of women that are having miscarriages due to the dirty water in Flint.  I am pro-life because I don’t want a child to be born under circumstances in which he or she will lack necessary resources.  

I might not want abortion for myself, but that’s my choice. And I respect the choice of someone who considers abortion.

Your Uterus. Your choice.