Despite the repeated and intense efforts of right-wing religious zealots who call themselves “Pro-Life,” you do have a choice. If you find yourself burdened with an unwanted pregnancy, you may feel as if you have no choice except to end, abort, or terminate the pregnancy you never asked for, in the first place. It’s a no-brainer, right? Well, there are a few things about choices that you need to keep in mind before you make the abortion choice.
Choices Provide Limits
Any choice is this way, really: By choosing one thing, you’re choosing against another — and usually many other — options.. If you choose to go to one school, you choose not to go a myriad other schools. You’ll never get to be a first-day freshman again, stepping onto a college campus as one who belongs there, for the very first time. Once you decide where and when and how that first approach to advanced education will go, you don’t get that same choice, again. And you can’t simultaneously make opposing choices.
The same is true about your choice to terminate or continue your pregnancy. Allowing your pregnancy to progress does not mean that you cannot have an abortion later, carry the baby full-term and put him or her up for adoption, or keep the baby and care for him or her yourself. If you decide to wait and explore your other options further, you will leave those other possibilities open. You will continue to have freedom of choice. But if you choose abortion now, you’ve limited your future choices; you’ve taken your own freedom away.
Choices Cannot Be Reversed
Okay, some choices can be altered later. Going back to the choice about a college to attend, you never get that same initial choice again. The thing about schools, though, is that you can transfer later on. If you chose abortion, though, there is no turning back.
Once you decide to end a pregnancy and go through with that “procedure,” it is over. Your body will no longer provide that fetus with a nurturing environment, and no one else can, either. Even if your pregnancy was past the point where premature babies can sometimes survive outside the womb, no one can legally provide life-saving care for the child whose life you—the mother—choose to end.
Perhaps no one will even know about your abortion choice, except for you. You may someday change your mind about what would have been the right or best choice for you, your body, and your baby, but you cannot change your choice. As much as Pro-Choice advocates have fought for you to have a choice, they can never give you a chance to go back and change that choice, once it’s been made. But remember that as the days and sleepless nights and months and decades pass, you will never be able to go back and make a different choice. Today’s choices often fuel tomorrow’s regrets. Remember that this choice limits your future choices and cannot be reversed. When you exercise your right to choose, remember what choices mean.
Women’s Center-East Dayton is located at 4787 Burkhardt Avenue not far from Woodman Drive in Dayton, Ohio. We offer free pregnancy testing and free pregnancy ultrasounds to Dayton women. Women can make a free initial appointment online by going to www.womenscenterohio.com and going to the East Dayton location page. To schedule an appointment over the phone or to learn more about the services we provide, call 937-610-7777. We can be reached by email at info@womenscenterohio.com. All Women’s Center-East’s pregnancy services are free and confidential.
