Pro-Choice Should Mean You Can Choose Life

Having been pro-choice for years, the focus was always on the right to an abortion.  The choice of life was somewhat overshadowed.  However, now that I am older, I often wonder about those loaded terms "pro-choice" and "pro-life".  What do they really mean?  And do they create more of a wedge between us than anything else?  In my mind, pro-choice means you can choose either life or death for your unborn.  And pro-life means you believe in choosing life.  So, why this wedge?  Why are pro-choice advocates upset about the organization Rebecca and I started?  Embryo Defense

I think it's because pro-choice advocates don't like to be told that choosing death for your unborn is wrong.  I get it.  Pro-choice women normally don't believe it's anyone's right to point out that a woman's choice to kill her unborn is unacceptable.  Pro-choice advocates also are normally not religious or if they are, it is private for them.  I get that as well.  I'm not going to beat anyone over the head with a bible.  That's the last thing anyone will see me do.  I practice my religion privately as well.

But I do believe there is room for a real conversation about what abortion is and should be considered, and where our society is headed.  I also believe that the caselaw surrounding frozen embryos is very telling on how our society views the value of life.  The only choice that is being protected is the choice to kill the unborn.  Unlike abortion, where the mother decides whether the baby lives or dies based on her desire to carry the baby to term, embryos are created through the IVF process by both parties, either of which could bring the child to term (through the marvel of surrogacy).  And by the way, these are "wanted" unborn children.  There is no doubt by looking at the court cases that one of the parents is fighting for their embryos, at all costs.  And yet, you would think, using the same logic of "choice" in abortion that the parent wanting the child should have his/her "choice".  Is the only choice protected to kill the unborn, in a case where one of the parents "wants" the unborn and is willing to bring the child to term?  Apparently, according to the case law on embryos, society doesn't care about a woman's (or man's) right to choose unless it's to kill the baby.  Something is awfully twisted about that.


Jalesia “Jasha” McQueen is a Mother of 3 boys (one who has Down Syndrome), Veteran, Attorney, Entrepreneur and is currently in the Missouri Appellate Court seeking custody of her embryos, Noah and Genesis. “My dear Noah and Genesis, may you survive and be born.”  Jasha is co-founder and Director of Embryo Defense, a Missouri nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and providing resources for anyone who believes in saving human embryos. www.embryodefense.org.