It is what it is...

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa...

It is the 38th anniversary of Roe Vs Wade. Back in 1989, I was in D.C. at a Pro-choice rally. I was passionately for abortion. Or more accurately for a women's right to "choose."  If I thought about it much, I thought that abortion wasn't a great choice but it wasn't my choice to make for another woman. But what that choice entailed, I didn't think about. I didn't think about the human person having a heartbeat by the time most women would discover they were pregnant. I didn't think how it looked like a human being and how it bounced around in the womb within the 1st trimester. I thought, abortion in the 1st trimester wasn't bad because I assumed it was a blob of cells with no feelings or consciousness. After all, I couldn't remember being in my mothers womb. Then again, I don't remember the day I was born or shortly after or even the first two years of life. Yet, it would be unthinkable for most people to kill a newborn baby or infant or toddler. But I insisted to myself and to pro-lifers I would get into arguments with, that it wasn't our decision. I would say or thought to myself in anger.
"Not your body! How dare you try and takeover a woman's body!"

I just didn't think about the other body that just happened to be inside the woman's body. It didn't occur to me that it was an individual that was just at an earlier stage in development. It didn't become more human as it grew up. It was already fully human.  It becomes human when the egg and sperm meet. Science says, human life begins at conception. It is what it is. Another living human being.

The saying on bumper stickers is true : "Abortion stops a beating heart."
It does. No pro-choice advocate can say it doesn't. It is what it is. You can't change something to what it is not just to make things more comfortable or feel morally o.k. Abortion ends another human being's life. Science backs that up since science says life begins at conception. That life is a human being. Zygote is just a term to indicate the stage of development of that human being just as newborn baby or toddler indicates a later stage of development of the same human being. It is what it is.
I think most abortion advocates don't really think of what is happening inside the mother's womb. As it was for me, it is abstract to them. Yet, the pregnant woman is still referred to as mother. I've heard some abortion advocates inadvertently call the pregnant women, facing abortion, mothers. Somewhere in their psyche they understand what something is. But even when they don't, changing words or terminology doesn't change what something is. It is what it is.
But is the abortion epidemic the fault of the people who think women should have a "right to choose?"
No, I don't think so. I understand that usually their intentions are well meaning. I used to agree with them.
I think instead, it is a societal issue. As far as society has come in women's rights, the real issue is that women aren't valued for being women. Motherhood isn't valued and is thought to be something anyone can do. If a woman can do something, society assumes it's not that difficult or important. If a man does it, then suddenly it is elevated to something important. Rosie O'Donnell said the blasphemous quote that if men could have babies, abortion would be a sacrament. I would challenge that to say if men could have babies, having babies would become a sport. Whoever went without an epidural the longest would win the gold medal. Whoever had a baby with the highest Apgar score after birth would win a multimillion dollar ad contract for diapers or formula.

Take cooking for example. This was traditionally a woman's role. But when men got into it, you started getting celebrity chefs and competitions. Iron Chef, for example, is a cooking competition in Japan and now in the U.S. When they had the "first" female chef, Cat Cora elevated to Iron Chef, she was suddenly considered a pioneer for women chefs. Suddenly, being a cook is "men's" work that a woman has to "conquer."
And yet women were the primary cooks for centuries. What's different now? Cooking is cooking. It is what it is. In Russia, doctors were traditionally women and thus being a doctor wasn't anything special. It didn't have the ring it does in the USA when parents got excited about the idea of their daughter marrying a "doctor." Naturally, why would we think motherhood is anything special?

Abortion lowers women's status even further. It devalues women and motherhood even more than they are already devalued. Being a mother is an inconvenience that gets in the way of a "real" job like being CEO of a company. Any traditional roles that women did in the past aren't considered important in today's world. This isn't to say women shouldn't become CEO's or leaders of countries or some other traditionally male role. The real problem is that women who don't strive for that are undervalued and the work of raising children is considered not important and not worthy of recognition. Yet most will tell you it's the hardest job in the world and requires a lot of different skills at the same time.

Now, as a stay at home mom of three children, I understand how wrong I was. I used to look down on women like me. I used to think children got in the way of a good time and a fulfilled life and career. Even as a stay at home mom I would sometimes feel inadequate and think I should be doing more. I would experience the condescension of those who were not in my shoes. Oh, she just stays home all day with the kids. How mindless and boring is that?

No wonder the pro-choice movement is a women's movement. No wonder women are too often thought of as sex objects. After all, sex without the consequences of a baby is just sex and just for pleasure. Take away the life giving nature of sex and it becomes nothing important and women become just another object to getting that inconsequential pleasure. Men become objects too. Fatherhood isn't important either. It's a responsibility they can dash. Especially with the "choice" of abortion available. If  a woman keeps the baby she is expected to raise the child by herself. Because it was her decision to keep the baby they both created. How are we supposed to hold men accountable for supporting their children if the choice to keep the baby is only the womans? We as women can't have it both ways. If there were no abortions, society would have to effectively address the issue of the deadbeat father. They couldn't just write it off as only the woman's responsibility because she chose to not kill their baby.

Women are fighting for their right to be respected and valued.  But we're on the wrong battlefield. We think that by breaking the glass ceiling or climbing the corporate ladder, we'll get the recognition we deserve. Instead, we should have been recognized and rewarded for what we do naturally. Being entrusted with the highest gift that God bestowed upon us. Having a body that grows new human life. Being an active participant in the process of an awesome miracle. Enduring hours of labor that would break any typical man in two. Feeding this new human life the most perfect adaptable food from our bodies.  Raising that child, (hopefully with the father,) to become a future world leader or scientist that discovers the cure for cancer or a great Saint. It's magic. It is what it is.