Abortion.

I get so tired of hearing people debate whether women should be allowed to have abortions or not. The cries of "the embryo/fetus/fertilized egg is a person," versus "it's a woman's right to decide what to do with her body." Just doesn't address the issue for me.

The issue to me is that it's a woman's life. I don't want an abortion. I'd rather not see anyone get one, because it is really a symptom of many other serious problems in the world that both men and women face. Between lack of access to birth control, inadequate sex education, rape and sexual assault, substance abuse, poor self-esteem, poverty, motherhood as a barrier between women and their goals, health risks to the mother or the child, and a laundry list of other issues, the circumstances that usually lead to abortion are not pleasant. Abortion is the result of problems such as these. No woman decides to favour abortion as birth control. Women don't simply shrug at the thought, make a snap decision, and forget it all quickly after the ordeal is over. It's a life-altering choice and a last resort.

It's a choice we all hope to never have to make. Some may have already made the choice, never having had to face the situation. They know they would at this junction in their life, or they know they never would. We'd all rather not.

But the point is, we have the choice because women are not slaves to host symbiotic organisms at the whim of a higher authority. Women are people. People who have to care for themselves and who have to make difficult choices for themselves.

And no person should be told that they are being put at risk because their life is no longer their own.