OPINION: Women need more say in abortion rights

I am pro-family, pro-adoption and pro-choice; believe it or not, there doesn't have to be a difference between these seemingly dichotomous viewpoints. While many of my friends had mothers selfless enough to give their children up for adoption, I have other friends whose lives would have been devastated if they'd carried a child full term.

Giving up something you've literally carried within you for nine months is not an option for some women, but giving a new baby what it needs may be just as impossible. The solution for some is abortion. Or better yet, solve the problem before it's caused and get on a reliable method of birth control.

Talking about abortion and birth control in an opinion column is kind of like discussing Brett Favre on ESPN: it's beating a dead horse with a stick. However, I want to bring a new perspective into the controversial topic and discuss some aspects that are not always considered.

I receive emails from Planned Parenthood, and the other day I received one asking me to sign a petition so Congress won't cancel funding for women's health care via Planned Parenthood. This includes not only abortion and birth control, but STD/STI testing and treatment, pap smears and pregnancy testing. Many of the services benefit men as well as women, but even so, the health of both sexes is being threatened by powerful male politicians with super conservative agendas.

When wealthy, privileged men in the House and Senate are doing their best to prevent women from getting the health care they need, I get really angry. The idea that men who can, and do, run away from the responsibilities tied to a pregnant girlfriend, have the power to make decisions that influence women's reproductive health care is garbage.

This is especially true when the policy decisions they make are dictated by religious conservative agendas based on God disagreeing with the use of birth control or abortion.

This doesn't just apply to men in Congress; men in top religious positions are just as much to blame. Different religions are against abortion for different reasons, but they almost all take an oppressive stance against women's choice.

The Catholic religion, which is patriarchal, claims abortion is a sin because it takes life. Orthodox Judaism sanctions abortion only to safeguard the life of a woman.

The LDS Church claims abortion is a sin — unless the pregnancy is a product of rape or incest. The LDS Church's strategy seems to be the most liberal, and I stand in solid agreement with them about forced pregnancies; however, even the LDS Church seems to care not about what the woman in question wants, but instead focuses around pregnancy as the consequence for consensual sex outside of marriage.

As everyone knows, the high rate of abortions could easily be lowered by making birth control readily accessible to women from all walks of life. Why even the most conservative religious leaders are against waiting to start a family until you're ready is beyond me; and yet one of our own male senators — Orrin Hatch — has tried to propose a multi-million dollar plan to promote only a comprehensive sex education, which means teens and young adults don't have full access to knowledge about birth control.

We have female doctors, female nurses, female lobbyists and females who utilize the services provided by companies such as Planned Parenthood, who add their perspectives regarding abortion to the social forum, but men are the ones making the big decisions on women's health care. This is unacceptable.

I need Planned Parenthood, my girl and guy friends need Planned Parenthood, and as long as there are limits on individuals receiving the health care they need, I'm going to have a problem with it and so should you.

Email your senators and representatives and let them know that you, and those you love, need full access to health care. The problem will only find its solution when everyone who cares gets involved.