“Choice”

Lethbridge Herald, Nov 1 2011: A few weeks ago I wrote a letter to the editor outlining how abortion, if continued unchecked, can and indeed already is leading to infanticide.  It sparked a bit of a debate on the online forum, which is great.  I would like to openly refute one of the arguments made on that forum because, sadly, it is a common one, and one that doesn’t make much sense.  It is that of “choice” – that “it’s my body, and I can do with it what I want”. 

Sure!  Eat too much, drink too much, watch too much TV, smoke.  I know, however, especially as a nurse, that these can have detrimental side effects, and so I would encourage people not to make these choices, because I love and only wish the best for my fellow man.  But, you can do whatever you want; it’s your body, after all.  However, in the case of abortion, not only are there detrimental side effects (a significantly increased risk of breast cancer, for example), but there is more than one person involved, someone whose choice is being completely ignored.  And that’s why pro-lifers won’t “butt out”.  If “choice” is the argument made for abortion, then I urge you to extend that same choice to the child.  Maybe wait until he or she is a little older to understand, say five or six, then ask her if she wants to die.  It’s her body, after all.

One of the pro-choice arguments made on the forum was, “You have no right to their lives”.  I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Melanie Harthoorn, Coaldale