Choice....Really?

Pro-choice : describes the political and ethical view that a woman should have complete control over her fertility and pregnancy.

~~~

She didn't remember a thing. Okay...she remembered getting ready to go out that night. Her friends had talked her into it. It had been a really bad break-up and her friends convinced her that a night out would be the cure that she needed to get her mind off of things. She spent the evening feeling out of place and wishing she'd stayed home. She'd rather have had another night with her remote than trying to pretend she was ready for the bar scene. She was introduced to him by a friend. Well, actually he was a buddy of her friend's new boyfriend. He was almost too good-looking. Her friends so badly wanted tonight to be the remedy that she needed, so in order to alleviate their concerns, she conceded to a dance. He bought her a drink and her friends told her later that they never questioned his intentions when she left with him. Later that evening he raped her. She awoke the next day, in her car, feeling nauseated and unable to recall the fuzzy details of the events of the previous several hours. After hours at the police station, discovering that her suitor had given her a fake name, exhaustive std tests, emotional turmoil, when she thought that the whole ordeal might be behind her she received the call to say that her pregnancy test had come back...positive. She needed to become unpregnant. She knew there was no other choice. She was all alone. No job. No parents. And she couldn't deal with the reminder of a rape. Emotionally she just couldn't. She was taking meds just to get through each day as it was. No - she did not have a choice.

~~~

She loved him. And he loved her. They would get married someday. But not yet. They were too young. Well, not that young. Just not old enough to get married. He wanted a better job first. They had taken their relationship to an intimate level. It was a mutual decision. They used precautions. But there is no 100% method . They weren't thinking about that though. They'd been intimate for so long now that they just became a little bit too comfortable. Less careful. She got the flu. It lasted for a month. She had a previously scheduled doctor appt and when she mentioned the flu, the doctor asked when the date of her last cycle had been. He sent her for some tests. And when she received the phone call from the doctor's office, telling her the news of her pregnancy. She told the doctor's nurse that she would need an appt for an abortion. Why was that so easy? She knew that abortions were wrong. She'd always known it. How could she have made this decision now so easily? She really didn't wonder why at the time. She wouldn't until years later. Right now all she knew was that she needed to become unpregnant. She knew there was no other choice. It would not be possible to tell her parents. They would not understand. They wouldn't even be able to understand why she was no longer a virgin. It was not an option. No - she did not have a choice.

~~~

Pro-Choice?

If it is really about Choice...

Why is it then when you talk to someone who made a choice to have an abortion that they tell you that they had the abortion because they felt that they...had no other choice?

Why does someone, who had an abortion, talk later about the regret of their decision? And the fact that they only did it because they felt that they...had no other choice?

Why does an option that is based on Choice become an option that is made only because...'she felt that she had no other choice'?