Why I Am Pro-Choice

Don't worry - I haven't fallen off the deep end or hit my head or had a radical change of mind. I do not mean that I support the option to abort a human life at any stage. However, I find it wildly outrageous that pro-abortionists have captured the term "pro-choice" and made it only about being pro- or anti-abortion.

Simply put, everything in life is a choice. From your favorite color, what you're going to have for lunch, what college you'll attend, who you're going to marry. Big or small, everything in life is a choice. Even the fact that you're reading this blog post means that you made the choice to.

And I am pro-choice.

I am in favor of choices. I like having options. I enjoy being able to weigh pros and cons or just going with my gut feeling. I am fond of the decision-making process. In whatever form it takes. Even when the choices are difficult. Even if it's a catch-22. Even when the choice stresses me out and makes me lose sleep. Let me explain why.

Imagine for a second that you never have to go through tough choices ever again. You don't have to decide what cancer treatment you'll go through. You don't have to weigh the options of who you're going to marry - or if you'll get married. You won't ever have to worry about where you live, the schools that your kids will go to, the job that you'll have, or the car that you'll drive. You don't have to come up against those difficult and important decisions ever again.

But, you will also never be able to decide if you want to hit snooze and sleep in just a few minutes longer. You'll never be able to decide if you want to play with your kids or what vacation you'll take next. You won't get to decide between Mexican or Italian food for dinner. You won't be able to choose what your favorite color is, what you like to wear, or what your hobbies will be.

A life without difficult choices is a life without choices.

A life without choices is a life without freedom.

Sure, some people make wrong decisions when they're given the opportunity to choose. Some people choose to commit mass shootings. Some people choose to drink and drive. Some people choose substance abuse. Watching these bad things happen can sometimes make us wish that people never had the choice in the first place. That no one could even get hold of guns, that someone had stopped the drunk before they got in their car, that the addict had never had that first encounter.

But, if you take away the opportunity to do wrong, you also take away the opportunity to do right. Without choice, there is no freedom. Some people are going to make the wrong choice with their freedom, but not everyone will. And why would you punish the people who haven't done anything wrong?

As foreign of a concept as it may be, freedom is not a right. It is a responsibility. Being free means making the tough calls, being faced with catch-22 choices, and making the right decision. Not only for yourself but for others.

Having freedom - being free - means being pro-choice. It means knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing to do right. It means facing the consequences of bad decisions. It's not easy, but since when has anyone ever said that freedom was easy.