Today is Blog for Choice Day, commemorating the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The theme for this year is “Why I vote pro-choice”.

I vote pro-choice because I think abortions need to be kept legal. I believe firmly that a woman deserves the right to choose how to care for her body. I believe that making abortions illegal wouldn’t stop abortions, it would just make them more dangerous. Statistically, our abortion rate is the lowest since 1976, which refutes the idea that the longer abortions are legal, the more people will choose that option.

Why do I think abortion should be kept legal?

• Because women who are raped or victims of incest can become pregnant, and it is unfair to make the woman continue a pregnancy after that trauma.
• Because diseases like toxemia exist that can take the life of the woman and fetus, or spare the life of the woman if she aborts.
• Because there are diseases and genetic conditions that can lead to a child dying in severe pain within hours or days of birth.
• Because you never know what could happen to you.

I vote pro-choice so that women have an option that will save their lives and/or sanity. Does this mean that there are some people who have abortions for reasons other than what I listed? Absolutely. Do I wish that people would make different choices? Sometimes. But how can I know for sure what their lives are like? I can’t. It’s their decision. Their bodies.

I vote pro-choice because I don’t think the country should make laws based on religious beliefs.

I vote pro-choice because the Constitution grants us the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, and therefore the woman’s life and happiness need to protected.  If a pregnancy would threaten a woman’s life or happiness, she needs to have options for termination.
I also vote pro-choice because I want to give myself an out. I have no plans to have an abortion (and no plans to become pregnant), but I can’t see into the future. A wise doctor of mine once said, “Sometimes you wait because someone else has had an emergency. Sometimes you are the emergency.” He was right, I was. And someday I might need an abortion. I am selfish enough to want abortion to be kept legal for that possibility.

If you still think “It could never happen to me”, read Julia’s story about her son Thomas, and her need for a late-term abortion.

I vote pro-choice because I want there to be choices available for all women.