I HAVE A HEARTBEAT TOO.

Abortion has been in the news a lot lately. I've been reading a lot of news articles, and the comments on those articles. There's a lot of this kind of stuff: "Just don't have sex!" or "Just use birth control!" or "Just have the baby and give it up for adoption!" or "But it has a heartbeat!"

Let's address these things in order, shall we?

1) "Just don't have sex!" Really? Really?? Come on. We all know that this is just unrealistic. This is not Medieval Times. You can't just expect people to not have sex just because they don't want a baby. It's just not going to happen. People like sex, and that's ok. They should be able to enjoy it without having to worry about being executed by their own country just because they got pregnant and decided they didn't want to be.

2) "Just use birth control!" Well, a lot of people do use birth control. But a there are a lot of people that don't have access to affordable birth control because our healthcare system is kind of fucked up. One place that people - both men and women - could go for affordable STI testing and birth control is Planned Parenthood. But, we all know how forced-birthers feel about Planned Parenthood. They want people to use birth control, but they don't want them to have access to birth control. You can't have it both ways people. Not to mention the fact that birth control is only 99% effective. There are certain medications and even vitamins, that when taken, can completely negate the effects of birth control, or at the very least, make it much less effective. If you're even a few hours late taking your pill each day, that can also make the effectiveness go down. Even other forms of birth control can fail. Women have gotten pregnant while on the Depo shot. Condoms break. Hell, my mom had her tubes tied 2 years before she had me. Nothing is 100% effective. Nothing. Plus, there are women that are unable to take any kind of birth control because of other medical reasons. "Just take birth control" is not a solution. It helps, but it's not perfect.

3) "Just have the baby and give it up for adoption!"

I can't help but think that the people that say this have never been pregnant or given birth in their lives, and they have no idea what it is that they're actually saying. They make it seem like being pregnant for 40 weeks and giving birth is as easy as taking a shit. If women were able to go through an entire pregnancy and give birth without it affecting their own bodies at all in any way, we'd probably be having a different conversation. But the fact is that pregnancy and childbirth change a woman's body forever. And THAT is why women are fighting against all these abortion bans so hard. It's not because they want to kill babies for shits and giggles on a Thursday afternoon because they have nothing better to do with their spare time. It's because women have a right to bodily autonomy.

So, bodily autonomy means that the only person that has control over what happens to your body is you. You are the only one who can decide whether or not to pierce your bellybutton, or get a tattoo, or donate blood, or donate an organ. Not a single other person on the planet can make those decisions for you. This even applies to corpses. Dead people. With that in mind, let's go over what pregnancy and childbirth do to a woman's body...

I'll start with a few links:

https://www.womenshealth.gov/pregnancy/youre-pregnant-now-what/body-changes-and-discomforts

https://www.womenshealth.gov/pregnancy/youre-pregnant-now-what/pregnancy-complications

https://www.healthline.com/health/pregnancy/episiotomy-types#3

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gestational-diabetes/symptoms-causes/syc-20355339

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/preeclampsia/symptoms-causes/syc-20355745

I'm sure there are plenty more links where those came from, but these cover quite a bit.

Now, for those of you who are too lazy to click a link and read it for yourself, I'm going to go over some of these things.

Stretch marks: There are a very small handful of women that are blessed enough to not get a single stretch mark during pregnancy. The majority of women though do get stretch marks. They are a result of your body growing and stretching faster than your skin can keep up with. Women not only get them on their bellies, but also on their breasts, thighs, and butt. These stretch marks may fade over time, but they will never go away. Stretch marks are forever. Permanent scars.

Gestational diabetes: Getting gestational diabetes is not only bad for the baby (excessive birth weight, pre-term birth, respiratory distress syndrome), it's bad for mom too because there's a chance that she'll end up having diabetes for the rest of her life.

Pre-eclampsia: I had pre-eclampsia with my son. Symptoms usually include excess protein in your urine and high blood pressure. Other symptoms include: severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, temporary loss of vision, and impaired liver function. The only treatment/cure for this is to deliver the baby. If you don't, there's a possibility that it could turn into full-blown eclampsia. If that happens, the woman could have a seizure and die.

Episiotomies and vaginal tearing: Sometimes, the baby's head or shoulders are too big, or the baby comes out too fast, and your vagina will either rip open, or the doctor will cut it open with a scalpel. The incision the doctor makes is an episiotomy. There are 4 degrees of episiotomies.
*First degree consists of a small tear that only extends through the lining of the vagina. It doesn't involve the underlying tissue.
*Second degree is the most common type. It extends through the vaginal lining as well as the vaginal tissue.
*Third degree involves the vaginal lining, vaginal tissue, and part of the anal sphincter.
*Fourth degree is the most severe. It includes everything the third degree does, plus the rectal lining.
A third or fourth degree tear/episiotomy can cause the woman to lose control over her bowel movements until it is completely healed.

I have only listed 4 things that pregnancy and childbirth do to a woman's body. There are literally dozens of other side effects and medical complications that can take place. You can view some of them by clicking on the links above.

There are many, many reasons that a woman might need an abortion, but these things alone should be reason enough.

Why do people think that forcing diabetes, seizures, and anal tearing on a woman is perfectly ok?

Imagine for a second that any of these things could happen to the father of the fetus. Imagine how readily available abortions would be if there was a risk of a man's penis tearing all the way down the shaft and clear through to his anus, causing him to not have control over his bladder or bowels for months until it healed. If you wouldn't force that on a man without his consent, then you can't force it on a woman without her consent either.

This is why women can't just "pop the baby out and give it up for adoption." It's because pregnancy and childbirth will literally change (and possibly destroy) parts of her body forever. THAT is why it is the woman's choice, and the woman's choice ALONE, whether or not she wants to carry a baby to term. When we say "MY BODY, MY CHOICE" these are the reasons we say that. You cannot FORCE any of these medical complications on a person without their explicit consent.

Last, but certainly not least...

4) "But it has a heartbeat!" 

You know who else has a heartbeat? THE WOMAN. The woman has a heartbeat. Not only does she have a heartbeat, but she also has friends, a significant other, other children that may need her, a mother, a father, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. She is a whole person, and she matters to everyone in her life.

My kids right now are 13 and 15 years old. If I were to die because of pregnancy-related health complications, my teenagers would miss me a whole lot more than a fetus that doesn't know who the fuck I am. My kids are TEENAGERS. They would remember me, and grieve my death. To that fetus, I'm just a face in a photo.

Strangers have no right to force me into a life-threatening situation. The only person that gets to make decisions like that about MY body and MY life is ME.

I have a heartbeat too.