Personal Narrative: The Geography Of Abortion

My motto before taking this class had always been, "I 'm not going to do that, but I am not going to stop anyone from doing it." I knew for sure that I was in support of gay marriage, had no problem with people who chose to work in the sex industry, and told myself that abortion is a choice that everyone woman had the right to make, just not me. In general I hadn 't given much thought to anything else. I tend to avoid politically tense conversations. I was raised in rural western Colorado, and both of my parents are conservative, my dad plans on voting for Donald Trump. I can, at times, be very conservative myself, but I am mostly neutral. Even though I call myself neutral I did feel strongly about equal pay and the wage gap, as well as

From what I understood getting pregnant was something only irresponsible, stupid girls did. I didn 't realize how wrong this understanding was, not that I think my mom and dad are bad people for being conservative and telling me that if I got pregnant it would be own thought, and I would have to deal with it... by raising my child. In fact they were right. I am an middle to upper class white girl, who has more privilege and opportunity than a lot of other woman, if I got pregnant I would and should be responsible for raising my baby. Reading Killing the Black Body, The Geography of Abortion, and all the other articles and clips on abortion turned out to be a serious reality check. My self-righteous vow to never get an abortion is ridiculous. Thinking that I am better than others because I have never had an unwanted pregnancy and don 't anticipate ever their being a risk of one, is

Killing the Black Body, and the abortion and choice articles were hard for me to read because it made me realize how prejudice I actually am. I had a superior attitude about abortion before this class. I thought that I was special because I said that I was pro choice, but I would never make that choice myself. I now realize how much it even means to be able to say I am pro choice. I definitely would have access and the capability to get an abortion if I ever needed to, and so many woman don 't. Abortions really are a young middle class white women problem. The pro-choice, pro-life debate completely alienates those that do not have the capability of getting an abortion in the first place. Killing the Black Body, and the class discussions really made me see how privileged and ignorant I was before, it is always hard finding out you aren 't as great as you thought you were. I now have a better understanding and compassion for women who can and do chose to get abortions, and those that can 't and don 't. I will never again think I am better than somebody who had an unplanned pregnancy, because I know that there are women out there that are victims of the system and don 't have the reproductive freedom that I do, and I should spend my time helping