Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Anti-Abortion. And Pro-Life, Too!

There is a difference, you know.

Most people classify with only two camps:  The "pro-choice/pro-abortion" side, and the "pro-life/anti-abortion" side.  I see a third camp.

Where?

Well, I've noticed that many anti-abortion people aren't necessarily pro-life.  That is, they're certainly against abortion, they know it's murder, and it's wrong.  But they'll follow that up with, "Thank heavens my husband got a vasectomy after {insert # here} kids."  That started to stand out to me.  "There is such thing as birth control, you know.  Reproductive responsibility?"  Perhaps we have a different understanding of the word...

Pro-life.

"Pro" in my world means towards, or pursuing. Assisting, upholding, helping.  Dictionary.com says, "in favor of a proposition, opinion, etc." In favor.  How can someone be "in favor of" life, if they advocate for birth control, or look down upon the possibility of... another life?

Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying those things are necessarily wrong, but they are not pro-life.

My garden has hit it's "prolific" stage.  Everything is starting to produce.  It's pro...  lific...  Hm, where have I seen words like that before?

Dictionary.com defines prolific as:

–adjective
1.
producing offspring, young, fruit, etc., abundantly; highly fruitful: a prolific pear tree.
2.
producing in large quantities or with great frequency; highly productive: a prolific writer.
3.
profusely productive or fruitful (often fol. by in  or of ): bequest prolific of litigations.
4.
characterized by abundant production: a prolific year for tomatoes.


You might be anti-RoundUp in your garden.  You might think it would be wrong (from a gardening standpoint) to till up the whole place as your seeds begin to germinate.  But you wouldn't necessarily be pro-garden if you tried to keep seeds from being planted there, or at least more than a few.  You wouldn't be considered prolific that way. :)

For myself, I have decided I can't be "pro-life" if I don't rejoice to hear of someone's baby on the way.  Even if it's baby #20.  Even if it's "special-needs."  Even if everyone else in the baby's life is lackluster in their excitement.  Even if money is tight.  Even if (and this is a little harder) the parents have no business (in my opinion) raising anyone. :)

So, if you're pregnant (again) and someone asks if "it was planned" (again), you can just reply, "how could it not be?  I'm not just anti-abortion, I'm pro-life."


5 comments:

annie said...

Interesting thoughts. And true, too.

So...are you? Pregnant (again)? :)

EllaJac said...

As far as I know, no. :) And I can't say I want to be pregnant again, yet. Oh, that adoption were easier! :]

MamaJ said...

Good post!!

annie said...

Haha :) I was joking, really. I understand exactly what you mean.

Rachel said...

This is really interesting! Thanks for making me think. The whole birth control issue is endlessly confusing/conflicting to me.