Blog for Choice 2008

This year's Blog for Choice topic is "Why is it important to vote pro-choice?"

Um. Ok. That's kind of a dopey topic, isn't it? I mean, I don't know about anyone else but I know that I vote pro-choice because I am pro-choice. Kind of a no-brainer there.

If I go a little deeper into that I would have to make the following confession: Most of the time I'm too cynical to be political. I think the government is too big and too screwed up for it to ever really matter who gets elected to what anymore. I can't get too into throwing my support behind any one candidate because I don't think any one candidate is going to be able to fix or change things for the better.

I also find myself unable to align with any certain political party. I'm a little too conservative to be a liberal and way to liberal to be a conservative. Independent parties leave me frightened and confused.

There is never a candidate that I agree all the way with on every issue so in the end I just have to pick one issue that's important to me and vote according to that. So I chose to vote based on the issue of reproductive rights. In America one in five pregnancies end in abortion and half of all pregnancies are unintended. With stats like that it just seems wrong for me to vote any way but pro-choice.

It's not just about abortion either. Of course I think every woman deserves access to a safe and legal abortion if that's her choice. But I think the changes we need to see in this area are more wide spread than just that. I think all women (and men for that matter) deserve access to safe and reliable birth control regardless of income or insurance status. I think our schools need to offer age appropriate, medically accurate sex education. Sex ed that is not based on lies and fear tactics *coughabstinenceonlysexedcough*.

As woman and as an American I think we deserve all these things and that is why I vote pro-choice.