OK the "childfree" thread opened the flood gates on a few thoughts that I've had recently. Bear with me here, please.
If one chooses to be childfree, that is fine; they have their reasons, it is their body, and who am I to judge? HOWEVER, I *do* have a problem with one aspect of the childfree thing: People who tell someone pregnant(or someone who has a pregnant S.O.) to get an abortion. As if they think they can make/influence the childfree choice for them.
I have a guy friend who was in that spot before. He was NOT a feeble-minded teenager who didn't know much about independent living in the real world. He was a college graduate, worked 2 jobs to get by, had established credit, and had recently moved out on his own. He finally felt like he was getting things accomplished in his formerly pitiful/unsuccessful little life. Then he got this girl pregnant. For moral and religious reasons, he was against abortion. Ideally he would have wanted to wait to have a kid, but he realized the consequences of his actions and realized that he had to do the mature, responsible, moral thing to do. Plus, he was not completely incapable of raising a kid...he had an education, a few jobs, basically he felt decently established. Yet a lot of his friends kept mentioning abortion as an option, to the point that it got really really catty. That is just wrong.
Some of these "abortion influencers" were people who had kids themselves! Ohhhh it was okay for them to have kid after kid, but not okay for my guy friend(who was more established than them, or at least in my opinion) not to? They also kept pointing out my guy friend's "flaws," such as the fact that he had to work 2 jobs to get by(oh way to go, bash the guy's overambitious work ethic and never-give-up attitude!). That hurt my guy friend's feelings, because here he'd felt that he'd made progress(financial/career/etc) and apparently these people didn't think it was "good enough." And when I was in that spot several years ago, people did the same thing to me(although I actually *was* in a bad spot at the time, working a shitty retail gig and being thisclose to getting kicked out of my house).
Please note: I am NOT bashing anyone who's ever gotten an abortion. People have their reasons, and I should not judge. The ONLY thing that I am bashing, are people that keep pressing the idea of "abortion" as much as a stripper offers lapdances or a used carsaleman pushes a sale. It is rude and messed up.
Comments anyone?


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