By: Yasmine Antoine

I have always been pro-choice. Since I was young, I have always advocated for peoples freedom to choose. So as long as that choice doesn’t affect others negatively. I never took the time to understand why some people were so vehemently pro life. It wasn’t until July 30. My grandmother and I have been talking, I just come to visit her all the way from South Jersey. My grandmother and I were never particularly close, he had a lot of disagreements, and were as opposite as left and right. During that time that I spent with my grandmother, she told me a story of when she was back in Haiti. Her and a friend of hers who that was we’re tired of the daily burden of cooking cleaning and taking care of the kids. My grandmother and her friend especially disliked it, because they were in their mid-20s and both of them already had Big families. My grandmother had four kids at that time, and her friend had five kids. My grandmother and her friend had spoken about getting an abortion previously, they were both tired and they both came to a decision that that would be what was best for them in their family. My grandmother told me how it was her friend who had gone for the abortion first. She went to the doctor, and they terminated the pregnancy. She was told to stay on bedrest and not to do anything foolish as she was in a fragile condition. My grandmother then followed to tell me, that her friend had sat on a steaming pot of herbs, a traditional Haitian practice when these kind of things are done. My grandmother then told me that, the blood had coagulated in her friends uterus, knowing this her friend went back to the doctor, where is she then received news that she would die. She said that the friends mother and friends husband had begged the doctor to do an operation on her, that could potentially save her life. The doctor had them sign a consent form, and then proceeded to do the operation on my grandmother‘s friend. The operation went well, and the doctor had told him that they shouldn’t give her anything cold to drink, as her condition was still fragile and any major shock to her body could kill her. Of course, The family still didn’t listen, and the mother had brought my grandmothers friend to drink. Right there in that moment the friend dropped dead soon as she had two sips of the lemonade. My grandmother said that experience had frightened her, and she decided to bring the pregnancy term instead of terminating it. It was then that I noticed that life experience, also plays a role into whether or not somebody is pro life and pro choice. Personal perspectives are what makes this subject very sensitive for many people. Many times in our head, it’s a question of what’s wrong or right. Sometimes, we forget that personal experience is actually what shapes of use of the world and what we believe is moral and just.

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