Like millions of people who were born before me, and who have been born after me, I was an accident, an unplanned pregnancy.
My parents planned and hoped to have a boy and a girl, but they had two girls and then they decided to stop there. But five years later I was not to be denied my life on Earth. And whether I was to be another girl, or finally the boy they most hoped for, they knew I was a person, not a choice.
For the majority of my life, I always thought abortion was a horrific thing to be avoided at all costs. But ultimately I declared myself as pro-choice. I have always been responsible and cautious and never have gotten a woman pregnant. But had it happened, I would have of course wanted the child. I had been moving more and more toward being pro-life when I saw the movie Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer.
I was shocked, outraged, and stunned. After watching it, I knew I was now pro-life without any doubt.
About a year later, I saw the powerful movie Unplanned. The movie is about Abby Johnson, who was formerly a Planned Parenthood clinic director. One day she was asked to assist on an abortion and what she saw forever changed her life, and her views on abortion. After I saw Unplanned, I knew I had to use my voice to speak up for children in the womb.
The fact that I am a man is completely irrelevant. Abortion is a man’s issue as much as it is a woman’s issue. In human history, no child has been born without sperm from a man, so how is a uterus a prerequisite to have an opinion on abortion? It takes a man and a woman to create a human life. At conception, the individual’s unique set of DNA is created. This DNA set has never before existed and will never again be repeated, it comes equally from the mother and the father.
For some in the pro-life movement, it is their religion and faith in God that drives them to speak up for life. While I have great respect for religion and those with faith, I am neither a believer nor a disbeliever. I believe in the truth, I just don’t know what the truth is. One truth I do know for certain is that killing children in the womb is morally wrong. And I believe deep down everyone knows it’s clearly and obviously wrong.
In the most recent abortion statistics released by the CDC for 2015, black Americans accounted for 36% of the abortions while only making up about 13% of the United States population. In fact, in New York City, more black children were aborted than were born alive in 2015. These numbers have to make you wonder, what is the pro-choice agenda? Who is encouraging these abortions? Where is the education, where is the compassion and respect for life?
The pro-choice crowd can keep trying to convince themselves that a baby in the womb isn’t a human being. And you can tell me I have no uterus, no opinion. You can insult the religious beliefs you assume I have and you can hate me because I’m an old white man. You do you, but I will continue to keep speaking up for children in the womb whether they are female or male and irrespective of their skin color.
Ryan Moore is a writer, songwriter and social media strategist. Follow him on Twitter @RyanMoore.
