papa will preach

Desserts aside, I've been doing some thinking. I watched the movie "Surrogates" today (Bruce Willis) and started thinking about how the abuse of technology would affect our lives and gay marriage and abortion and the bush administration and every other flaw this country has to offer, to be frank.

I am an opinionated person and most of you who know me know this fact very well. I have strong beliefs on everything from gay marriage to not being able to use your employee discount on sale items, but one thing that perpetually haunts me is the subject of abortion. Yes abortion is completely irrelevant to me as a person, but being a girl and one who wants to have children someday, it's a topic that I take very seriously. Many people believe that you need to experience pregnancy first hand in order to have a legitimate opinion on abortion. I beg to differ. Even though I don't plan on having a child until I am fully capable of supporting one and married, my view on abortion is not only valid, but should be strongly considered by women who disagree.

Abortion is wrong. It just is. Why do most women...actually girls...get an abortion? Because they slept around and made a mistake and need someone to clean up their mess. They can't keep the baby because they have no money and their boyfriends left them. Then why sleep around in the first place?

In middle school, we were told about the issues that arise when girls and boys don't "wait." Pregnancy was a consequence that was repeatedly brought up and something that our life skills teachers constantly stressed to the girls, but we didn't listen. I don't know if it's the whole "want-what-you-can't-have" situation, but whatever it is we have no one to blame but ourselves.

It is so unfair to accidentally get pregnant (even though you knew the risk) and then make an unborn human pay for your mistakes. And then you do the same thing again, and take another life. It's horrible.

A girl I knew in high school told me about her summer and how she "did it" with a boy and a while later "did it" with her boyfriend and then got pregnant and never knew who the baby belonged to. This girl is 18. I don't know many 18 year olds that have such adventurous lives, but the way I was raised, we shouldn't be having them. Knowing this girl pretty well and knowing the type of girl she was in high school, my immediate thoughts were that "she had an abortion", but I didn't say anything. She then said "...but I really consider myself a slut" which made it sound like she was justifying what she did. It amazed me when she said that and made me think "then what really is the definition of a 'slut'?"

I think when a girl realizes that people think she's a "slut" she might be lucky enough to want to change herself, so what more do you have to do in order to realize that what you're doing is wrong? Do you need to think in your own heart that you are a slut? I am by no means calling girls who get pregnant "sluts", I just can't think of a better word :/ Why can't girls just realize that sleeping with guy after guy is wrong, without being labeled a "slut?" When did we become so STUPID?

She then told me that she did in fact have an abortion and it's not just the idea of killing a baby that hurt me, the fact that she was so nonchalant and casual about what she did made me sick to my stomach. I was angry. How can someone regret sleeping with two boys and be completely okay with killing a baby? And then not think she's high school's definition of a slut? But that's a different story.

When someone makes a mistake, there is a consequence. The bigger the mistake, the bigger the consequence. A girl sleeping with a guy who knows what can happen to her, who accidentally gets pregnant should have to suffer the consequences. These girls know very well what can happen when they sleep around, but they still do it and who pays for their stupidity? Unborn babies. It's not fair. The girl made the mistake, why shouldn't she be obligated to keep her child? Or at least let it live? They think they're doing the kid a favor, they're doing themselves a favor because they don't have to live with the guilt of what they did and they don't have to worry about feeding a baby that they (in a way) chose to have. Nothing makes sense. Bottom line, a girl should be held accountable for what she did.

A girl will sleep with a boy, then get pregnant, then get an abortion then feel like it's okay to sleep around again because the option of abortion is always going to be there?! It's sick. And there's psychological damage that girls go through after aborting a baby as well. It's a very tough situation and in some cases traumatic. Trauma and depression can lead to doing dumb things, like sleeping around more to fill a void, and the cycle continues.

I want girls to know that it doesn't hurt to wait. Most people are advocates of doing things safely, but I say just wait. You know what can happen if you sleep with your boyfriend when you're 16 and you know exactly where that boy is going to go once he finds out what's in your belly. You need to be prepared for what might happen after that one moment with a boy. Girls should be fully able to physically, mentally, financially and emotionally support their child and until they are, they should just wait.

Girls also forget that adoption is always an option. Don't kill the baby, give it to someone who can take care of them. What's wrong with that? I think we need to build up our reputations as females and make smarter decisions.

A lot of you may be thinking "what if the girl is raped?" and yes, this is something that I have thought about several times. I could only imagine how horrible being raped could be. To have to suffer such an ordeal is beyond my comprehension, but there can't be conditions. Abortion is either legal or it's not. I know that's a harsh opinion, but realistically speaking, we can only have it one way or the other.

I hope this topic didn't make anyone angry, I just wanted to express a very well thought-out opinion. It might not be favorable to a lot of girls my age, but I think if we really look deep into this, we'll realize that this is unjust and wrong.