The Elephant in the Womb

Angry! I am angry!

This is not your mother’s feminist rage, because your mother always had the right to an abortion.

I’ll start this with honesty. The Republican Party? Supposedly the party of Lincoln, but I think Lincoln would feel disillusioned with what they have become. For example, they supposedly love babies. If that’s true, then why did 192 of them vote against a bill that will increase the amount of money allotted to the inspection and importation of baby formula during this unprecedented shortage? It seems a little hypocritical.

I’ll be honest again. I am biased; I am a registered Democrat. But I pride myself on being logical, and that means that come every election, I will research every candidate on the ballot no matter the party, and will not necessarily vote down my party line. However, I cannot ignore the fact that the while the Republican party and the conservative-majority SCOTUS screeches about protecting the life of the unborn and passes mountains of bills (and strikes the entirety of Roe down) to make sure some women can’t possibly receive a legal abortion, there are crickets about gun control laws that would save thousands of born lives.

Because here’s the thing—the modern Republican Party doesn’t care if you live or die. They don’t. I wish they would, because I live in an area chock full of Republican politicians, and I would love to not fear for my life every time I walk into Publix, but this is America. A woman is more regulated than an AR-15. Yeehaw!

You see, if you are a conservative reading this and you’ve made it this far, I appreciate you. Please keep reading! I promise I’m not here to waste your time. I have good points to make.

First, I encourage you to contemplate your pro-life stance. What is it about being “pro-life” that you value most? Do you value all life equally, or do you focus on fetuses most passionately? While it is admirable that you seek to be a voice for the voiceless, fetuses are scientifically just a clump of cells. They are unthinking. Unfeeling. And you think to yourself yes! That is why I am their voice! Great! Do you hold a ball of cells with the potential for life as high as a living, breathing elementary schooler? As an elderly man in a grocery store? A woman with an ectopic pregnancy?

If you answered “no” to any of my last three questions, I encourage you to check your idea of being pro-life.

What does “pro-choice” mean? I am pro-choice; do you think it means I love abortion and murdering the unborn? I do not. I am devastated that women are raped and become pregnant. I am devastated that women who desperately want a child must terminate their pregnancy because if they don’t, they will die, or their baby will die outside the womb, or they will both die. I am devastated that women cannot afford any more children, cannot afford birth control, and understandably don’t want their child to suffer in a broken foster care system rife with trauma and sexual abuse.

I am pro-life.

Abortion bans do not stop abortions from happening. They only guarantee that women will die. Abortion must stay legal in order to save lives.

I am pro-life.

Guns, specifically machine guns, must be severely restricted to prevent the many disturbed individuals that exist in our society from murdering innocents.

I am pro-life.

Ignoring life in favor of a donation from the NRA is not only anti-life, it is anti-American. How can you pledge allegiance to the flag when you disregard and disrespect the Constitution’s guarantee to life, liberty, and property? Does my life not matter; does my liberty not count? When did I become the property of someone other than myself?

I will say that Democrats are not perfect—after all, they are human. But midterms are fast approaching, and I implore you to vote blue, even if most of the time you feel red. Republicans have made it clear that they don’t care about America, they want to control women (even if it means they die) and line their pockets with cash. By voting blue, you are standing up for life. For the Constitution. For democracy. You are voting for the best interest of America.