Pro-life or pro-choice?  People will argue that you can’t be both.  That just isn’t true.  Being both is being able to separate your personal beliefs from the big picture.  As ugly as it is, abortion has become a necessary evil of society.  An abortion ban would cause more problems than it would prevent.

Does life begin at conception or when a fetus becomes viable?  The argument is one of science versus religion.  The abortion issue is the perfect example of why there is supposed to be separation of church and state.  Because no two groups have the same beliefs, you can not regulate morality.  Making policy based on religion allows the rights and beliefs of many people to be infringed upon.

Not only that but making abortion illegal is a human rights issue.  Every year 300,000 women are raped.  Of those women 24,000 will become pregnant by their rapist.  The government has no right to tell these women that they must carry and give birth to the child of their rapist.  What right does anyone have to tell a young teenage girl who was sexually abused by her father that she must give birth to any child conceived?  When the mental anguish and trauma involved in rape and incest is considered along with forcing someone to carry a child forced upon them one could consider it cruel and unusual punishment.

Making abortion illegal will force women to seek them out illegally and force doctors to perform them illegally creating more criminals for an already taxed prison system.  This will be setting things back over thirty years.  Safe and legal abortion is better than the alternative of women putting their lives and health in danger to obtain one illegally and unconstitutionly denying someone their personal rights.

Currently, under the abstaince only education that the current administration is pushing, emergency contraception isn’t even given to rape victims.  The majority of women who are raped are not even told that option is out there.  In fact, the majority of women in general are unaware of emergency contraception.  This is something that has to change.  American society has to work to overcome their hang ups about talking about sex, only then is proper education going to happen.

As a society we have our priorities wrong.  Insurance companies will cover Viagra but not birth control pills.  You can’t turn on the television without seeing adverts for male enhancement drugs but not for condoms. We do everything we can to make sure that men can engage in sex but we have issues with teaching them and their partners to have safe sex to prevent sexually transmitted diseases as well as unwanted pregnancy.

Not only does abortion need to be safe and legal but women need access to unbiased education that gives them all the options.  Teenagers and young adults need access to information on safe sex before they become sexually active.  They need to know the risks and all the options in order to make an informed decision that is right for them.  They do not need regulations and laws imposed on them based on the morality of someone else.