Opinion | If pro-lifers really value ‘life,’ they’d fight like hell for sex ed and birth control

If this was about life, we would have comprehensive sex education. Because this is biology, and because knowing about our own bodies is a human right, and because if we’re so concerned with making sure abortion never happens, we’d to make sure students know exactly what steps to take to prevent it besides telling girls to “keep their legs closed” and “rape victims who get pregnant are extremely rare.”

If this was about life, we’d make a comprehensive effort to actually understand women’s bodies. We’d understand more completely that 6 weeks is a missed period, that a blastocyst in women’s uterus shouldn’t have more rights than the woman carrying it. What we don’t know is killing us.

If this was about life, we’d criminalize the father for leaving a pregnant woman to raise the baby alone. We’d demand financial compensation, and we’d send him to prison the first time he puts a woman in a position where her financial security is dependent on a medical procedure that has been outlawed.

If this was about life, we’d see more social programs for single mothers that allow them to stay above the poverty line and raise their children in more comfortable circumstances.

If this was about life, we wouldn’t be calling birth control “abortion-inducing drugs” as a way to demonize the very thing meant to stop pregnancy from happening in the first place. And we sure as hell wouldn’t put men who use that term on the fucking Supreme Court.

If this was about life, we’d have fetal insurance and new tax laws. And what, exactly, would this mean for pregnant women in prison or jail or some sort of detention? Isn’t the fetus innocent?

If this was about life, we wouldn’t go out of our way to punish women for sex and still sell viagra over the counter.

If this was about life, we would see more education, more accountability for men, and less toxic language shaming women for being anything other than totally chaste at all times. But you know — I don’t think it’s just about life, is it?

No, this isn’t about life at all.

Featured image: Flickr

Caitlin Cohen

Caitlin Cohen graduated from Boston University with a degree in History. She has written for DeadState for three and a half years. She technically speaks French. She lives in Los Angeles with her boyfriend and has big plans to one day get a dog.