abortion – DSM (Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

Raped By Drugs

Imagine being a female drug addict and living in a shelter for the last couple of years. You wake up every day to go to work which involves consuming cocaine and alcohol. You wander the streets with no end in sight, enjoying the rollercoaster high provided by the drugs. Sometimes you wonder if you need anything more in this world besides drugs and a bed to sleep at night. Until the drugs invite an unexpected guest; someone who decides to violate your body and rape you while you’re passed out from the narcotics.

This is the life of many women who abuse drugs and suffer from a mental illness; they expose themselves to dangerous situations. Many times, the mental illness is due to the drugs themselves, also known as Substance-Induced Mood/Psychotic Disorder. When the drugs are metabolized by the body, usually during a hospitalization, the mental illness subsides. But this is when reality also kicks in, sometimes making the patient feel worse about their current situation.

But can you imagine ending up in the hospital and finding yourself to be greater than 15 weeks pregnant and asking for an abortion, all while you have been abusing drugs? What did that child do wrong to deserve this fate? Does this child not deserve a chance to live? Even though the patient feels violated and believes that this unknown man “seeded” her with his sperm, why should an unborn child suffer the consequence of termination and never see the light of day?

No one is arguing that a patient who is raped does not feel violated and perhaps even suffering from PTSD or depression, but did the patient not put themselves at risk by engaging in risky behavior such as using drugs with male strangers? What do you expect will happen when you are a young female and abusing drugs with grown men in sketchy urban areas? Do you think the men will just stand there and protect you while you nod out?

This goes to show you how dangerous drugs and mental illness are when they go hand in hand. Drugs not only impair your judgement, but they also place you in bad situations, exposing you to dangerous individuals who put your life at risk. You then find yourself waking up with your clothes off and some marks around your vaginal area; perhaps even some itching.

The next thing you know is that you are pregnant, a drug addict living in a shelter and depressed. You end up in a psychiatric unit to get stabilized, but your main focus is to have an abortion. This is the reality of many psychiatric patients all around the world. Don’t use drugs!

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)

The Controversy Regarding Abortion

The March for Life is an annual rally held in Washington D.C., protesting both the practice and legality of abortion. It is held on or around the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, a landmark decision which legalized abortion in the United States in 1973. The controversy regarding abortion is very much still prevalent today, not only in the United States, but around the world as well.

Many people who are in favor of abortion argue that it’s the woman’s right to decide what to do with her body. Proponents believe that because there are many cases where women are either raped, experience unplanned pregnancies or have a change in heart, that it should be their right to choose whether to experience childbearing.

Opponents do not agree with the arguments presented above. They believe that a fetus, regardless of weeks of age, is a human, and that any process that takes one’s life, such as abortion, is murder. Opponents do not argue against the hardships presented by rape or unplanned pregnancies; they just don’t agree that it should be taken out on the fetus.

In reality, pregnancy is an opportunity to give life to a human being, despite the route that was taken to become pregnant. No one can understand what a female experiences emotionally, mentally and physically after she was raped; the experience is very personal to her and only she can fully understand it.

But this does not mean that an abortion should be the solution. What did that fetus do wrong to deserve this fate? A fetus is life in the mother’s womb: it depends on the mother for nutrients, proper care and even good mental health on the mother’s part. A fetus has the potential to be the next Kobe Bryant, Prince, Elvis, 2Pac, Biggie Smalls, Bob Marley, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and more.

Bad things happen to good people all the time, but this does not mean that we should end future lives! For instance, Jesus Christ, the son of God, was murdered by man by being placed on a cross to suffer a slow and painful death. After this occurred, did God suddenly wipe out mankind from the face of the Earth?

While we cannot judge others’ decisions for choosing an abortion, we can agree that life does not depend on age: it depends on a beating heart that has the potential to one day allow the fetus to be an amazing human being outside of the mother’s womb!

We are pro-life because after all, why are we fighting against mental illness, AIDS, the coronavirus or any human suffering in the first place? Because we love life and want all of us to be happy, caring and loving towards each other.

That was God’s plan from incepetion. Let’s continue to live as faithful servants of God and allow life to prevail.

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)