The year is 1971, and Norma McCorvey, otherwise known as “Jane Roe” files a lawsuit against the state of Texas for its “unconstitutional abortion laws,” which simply indited abortion as illegal, except if the mother’s life was in danger. Fast forward two years, and the supreme court case, Roe v. Wade, is in full swing. It is 1973, and the court rules in favor of Roe. Consequently, abortion becomes legal nationwide, making it possible for any woman to end her pregnancy, regardless of the baby’s state.

However, what most of the public doesn’t know about Roe v. Wade, is the underlying aftermath of the story. No, the history textbooks don’t mention that McCorvey, indeed never got an abortion. Instead, she had three daughters.

On the contrary, McCorvey has dedicated the rest of her life to undoing the nation’s ruling in permitting abortion. She had the overwhelming epiphany that her actions were wrongly justified, and currently is a pro-life activist.

Moreover, most individuals would sympathize with a woman who wanted to get an abortion because she wasn’t prepared, mentally or financially. Some would argue that women who are against abortion must be blatantly against women’s rights and support a misogynist point of view. Planned Parenthood even goes as far to say “the ability to make this personal health care decision has also enabled women to pursue educational and employment opportunities.”

I wholeheartedly refuse this inclination. We live in the United States of America, where women can vote. Women can actively seek an education and even have the ability to go to college and compete with every other qualified person, without being persecuted.

All of these possibilities could have, and can be achieved without the ability to get an abortion. This is not an issue of privacy, or a even woman’s right to control her “reproductive life;” it’s simply a matter of morals.

The basic principle of equality says justice for all individuals, including the unborn. I would think that by gaining equality, with notions such as the 19th Amendment (suffrage for women), and the 14th Amendment (guarantee to privacy), one would continue to pursue freedom, so that it encompasses everyone.

I didn’t think that gaining independence gave someone else the right of taking it away. If you want to be strong, and be known as such, then take up for your actions.

Furthermore, adoption is always an option. Yes, we live in a world where rape happens, and a woman can get pregnant as a horrifying result. But getting an abortion doesn’t always solve that problem, nor does it take away the emotional trauma or the painful memories. That only punishes the baby for a crime he or she didn’t commit, which isn’t justified at all.

I’ll be brutally honest, this topic becomes confusingly grey and blindingly heartbreaking in this area of discussion, and I simply can’t explain every ugly human travesty that occurs within our world. I’d be foolish to even hint that I knew every possible solution. But I do know that every child deserves a chance to live, to reverse the wrongful acts, to be an active testimony against the atrocities of mankind.

Lastly, the opinion that only women should be the ones to decide whether abortion is legal or not because it is their bodies, or that men aren’t competent enough to recognize the impact of pregnancy, is simply asinine. The public of the United States has never voted on any decree concerning abortion, it has only been through cases such as Roe v. Wade that these decisions have been made, and even then it was decided by the Supreme Court justices, which at that time were all male.

Additionally, limiting voting takes away all meaning of democracy, which men and women have willingly sacrificed and given everything, including their lives for that title. Not only is this notion unpatriotic, it’s also sexist. Don’t belittle that courageous fight for the sake of being pious.

A baby has a detected heartbeat at three weeks of development, and can feel pain by the eighth week of the first trimester. By the second, the gender is determined and the baby begins to move and respond to the mother’s voice, and by the third, it is almost to the point of viability.

If you took all the facts and statistics and left out the age factor, everyone would undoubtedly unanimously agree that it is infanticide.