Learning to Fight for Life and the Rights of Women

I am surprised I am writing this piece.  Honestly, I hate abortion.  I feel that what happens during the procedure is a tragedy.  I wish there was no reason for abortion to exist.

Unfortunately, this is not the world we live in.

We live in a world that fails to see the value in educating the young concerning contraceptives.

We live in a world where unwanted pregnancies happen consistently.

We live in a world where women are used, abused, and expected to suck it up and deal with the consequences.

We live in a world where women are raped.

We live in a world where women are molested.

We live in a world where medical crisis happen.

We live in a world of economic struggle.

There are millions of realities about our world that make abortion an unfortunate necessity.

I am horrified at the way that some in the legislature in the State of Texas have conducted themselves in the past few weeks.  It has become increasingly apparent that many do not care about the opinions or rights of women at all.

Ultimately, I sympathize with some of their goals…I too pray and work for a world where abortion is increasingly rare…but to legislate against abortion is to devalue the health of women and force abortion underground.  I desire to protect the right of women to deal with the world we live in as they see fit.

If our state is interested in reducing abortions, a good place to start is to quit treating women like mindless second-class citizens.

We must broaden sex education to include more options than simply abstinence.  We must change our language.  We must stand up to violence.  We must push for equal pay for equal work.  We must stand for equal education.  We must change our systems.  We must change our economics. We must change.

I find it unbelievable and evil that legislators in the State of Texas are willing to constrict the rights of women without having any of these conversations.

I am a recovering sexist who is learning how best to stand up for women.  Like many of those pushing for restrictive legislation, I am also a follower of Jesus.  The difference is that when I met Jesus…and realized that “Go and sin no more” included my sexism too…I changed.

I pray that our legislators will do the same.

Amen