Thursday, November 10, 2011

Week 10 ; Enlisting the reader; Opinion

Abortion. Even the word is ugly, but who am I to say if it is right or wrong? I understand people have to do what they have to do. I'm not saying I could ever do it, but sometimes shit really does happen.

For example, have you ever seen a woman on the street that you just know, I mean know, has a substance abuse problem? Let’s just say this particular woman has been shooting up for oh... seven years, at least. Oh yeah! Let's not forget that she is now six months pregnant, and showing no signs of slowing down. Honestly now... think about that babies quality of life, if it even survived to birth. Can you imagine being brought into this world suffering from withdrawals? The pain that alone will cause, the sickness, and all the other issues that come from substance abuse in pregnant mothers. Then you have the mother herself, who apparently does not care enough about her own child to try to protect and spare this baby all the misery. Granted, that’s not always the case, and again, I do not support abortion. I'm just saying... what would you really think in this situation? Would you say "Oh I hope everything turns out ok.” Or, would you be more like "Jesus that dumb bitch should have had an abortion for that baby’s sake. She doesn't deserve a child and a child deserves better." I most likely would choose the latter, even given my position on the topic. And yes, I do understand some babies are born with miraculously little wrong with them, I’m talking extreme here.

My biggest issue right now, when it comes to abortion, is the people who protest. When I put my two and four year olds in the car and drive them to childcare, I don’t really want them to see gigantic fucking signs put up on the side of the road that have pictures of bloody chopped and torn apart babies. There is a time and place for everything. Should there not be a limit to what they can do? Laws, freedom and all of that, yes I know. I know, but really? My toddler needs to look at that because they don’t like it? I need to find a longer way to get where I need to go so my children aren’t subjected to those horrifying images? Let me just say, I struggle to pay for gas now; I can’t take a longer way.

I understand their point, as many do. But what do you think. Would their time be better spent doing something other than just standing on the side of the road, holding signs, terrifying mothers who are already terrified?  What if one of those mothers just happened to be getting an abortion because it was a matter of life and death? “I’m sorry, but you only have two choices. You can continue with this pregnancy with only a ten percent chance of survival for both you and the baby or, you can terminate the pregnancy now before it’s too late.” Now let’s add a little more to the story. This now hysterically crying young mother also has two other children and her husband left her for his young, hot, childless co-worker. Extreme, but it could happen. What now? She goes to the clinic and can’t bring herself to do it because of the signs? Those fucking signs. Let’s just hope that ten percent chance is enough.  Doesn’t it seem like an invasion on her rights? She shouldn’t have to see that. Neither should my children or anyone else’s.

1 comment:

  1. Interesting piece--it seems to gather strength as it goes on and reads as if you wrote it in a single setting and got more and more pissed-off as you proceeded.

    The first two grafs, for me, are pretty much dispensable. Standard pro-abortion argument without much of a stake in it for you. That is, you are not describing anyone you know in graf 2, just a passing face on the street and there are 7 billion of them.

    Graf 3, you introduce your daughters and there's your stake for sure. YOu could do more with them, describe them in their car seats, asking questions, you telling them to shut their eyes, etc. That doubles down on the reason behind your opinion.

    Even though graf 4 is again hypothetical, somehow it feels as if you believe in it more than graf 2--maybe the cumulative effect of your anger has really registered on the reader. In fact, we could use one more of the "Those fucking signs" so we know for sure that the "fucking" is being used for serious intent and not just as a lazy intensifier. You could simply accomplish that by titling the piece "Those Fucking Signs."

    Or maybe graf 4 works in contrast to graf 2 because the hypothetical is less hypothetical here: after all, just like the hypothetical case, you are a young mother with two children!

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