What women forget about equality and abortion

Take a few moments, and picture the following scenario:

• Few people see who she really is – much less who she could be, if she were only allowed to participate in normal society.

• No one asks her what she wants when they decide what happens to her body, making the choices they think are best for them, with no consideration of what is best for her.

• Her own family doesn’t even want her; they wish she never existed.

• She has no voice. No one cares what she says; it’s as if she doesn’t even have the ability to speak.

• With their hands – or with hired hands – family members abuse, crush, burn, and rip apart her body. Mercilessly, they kill her. She has no say in the matter.

If you think I’m talking about abortion, I’m not. These things – and more – happen to women the world over.

Our sisters suffer from oppression, slavery, forced marriages, child marriages, stonings, forced abortions, trafficking, and the constant fear of rape.

They suffer simply because they were born female. Their freedom and equality are stripped from them before they ever enter this world. They are not considered equal to men; it could be said that they are “less human.” Certainly, that is how they are treated.

And yet, while we as women recoil at the horrific treatment of our sisters around the world, we treat our children the same way. Or, at least, we approve of other mothers who do. We vote to let them keep this “right.” We refuse to talk about the issue, saying it’s personal and every woman’s own choice.

But what do we think of the men who make those exact same claims about oppressed women? And how are we any different?

When we support abortion and when we vote for it, at the same time, we participate in extreme expressions of inequality.

• We refuse to see who the child really is – much less who she could be, if she were only allowed to participate in normal society.

• We fail to consider her when we decide what happens to her body, making the choices we think are best for ourselves, with no consideration of what is best for her.

• We – as her mothers, her grandmothers, her aunts, her sisters, and her friends – we don’t even want her; we act as though she never existed.

• We say that she has no voice. No one cares what she says; because she doesn’t have the ability to speak, we shut her out.

• With our own hands – or with the hired hands of doctors – we abuse, crush, poison, burn, and rip apart her body. Mercilessly, we kill her. She has no say in the matter.

If these actions and attitudes are so wrong for our sisters around the world, how can it be right for our sisters in the womb? If we think it is right to treat even one woman or one child in this way, we do not understand equality.

In fact, we have entirely forgotten what it is.

Equality does not discriminate based on gender or age or environment or development. Equality views every single human as unique, valuable, precious, and worthy of life.

Abortion, just like the oppression of women, must end.

Note: To find out ten reasons why abortion is not the best choice, go here.