Happy 35th, Choice

One year ago I sat at this same keyboard, staring at this same monitor and if I remember correctly I was thinking almost the very same thing. Obviously, short of the very peculiar feeling of Deja Vu I'm experiencing this could be last year. Wait, wait, wait. No, no I do believe last year I was late, this year I'm early. See? We are making progress. Ok then, onward you say? Onward we shall go.

Thirty five years ago Roe v. Wade made women's reproductive choice an American woman's right. This right, however would not go down in history. It would not become one of those that every American stands for. Unlike the freedom to choose religion, or lack thereof, unlike the freedom to choose one's words - spoken or otherwise, or the freedom to choose employment without being barred as a result of inequitable bias, the freedom to choose when and what a woman must use her body for remains controversial at best. And now we find ourselves continually defending that right. I'm ok with that. Thirty five years later an election year is upon us. I'm fantastic with that. This year we, the men and women of America have the right, one much less controversial I might add, to choose our candidates wisely. To vote pro-choice.

I will be at the polls. I will be voting for the candidate who I believe will best protect those and so many other of my rights this year, and in the four or more that will follow. Even more than that, though, I will be voting for the candidate who will do the very same for my daughters, your daughters, granddaughters, nieces, sisters, aunts, and yes, even grandmothers. For all women I will stand. Why? I will stand because I do not believe that laws belong on our bodies. I will stand because I believe that a ban on abortion would result in far worse conditions for children nationwide. And most importantly, I will stand because to lose our right to choose would also be to infringe on the very freedom that so many pro-life supporters grasp to in their argument, the freedom of religion. To lose our right to choose would be two-fold.

Can we completely separate our constitution, or even our laws, from the moral foundations of those entrusted to write and uphold it? Absolutely not. To think so would be foolish. To try would be disastrous. However, we can demand that the decisions made under our constitution and in regards to our laws be made with the utmost care to base them only on the moral fiber common to all Americans regardless of religious affiliation. Abortion is not one of those fibers, because between the definitions of baby, person, life, and fetus lies much gray area - gray area born of a wholly subjective doctrine. A doctrine that we are constitutionally entitled to choose not to live by. And for that very reason I will stand, I will vote, I will choose - choose the candidate who will protect my very right to do so.