Pro Choice

Choice is freedom and so I guess you could say I’m pro choice. And yes, this includes a woman’s choice to abort a fetus or to bring it to full term. I am also pro life, which is to say I am against the death penalty, but I’m for a person’s right to terminate their own life. Having said that, I understand perfectly that my choices are obviously not everyone’s choices, nor should they be. I understand that my beliefs are my truths, but they are not absolute. In any moment I can choose differently, but to do that I must recognize my beliefs and understand my motivations and that It Matters Not, which is not to say nothing matters.

A key component of pro choice and pro life is Acceptance and Cooperation. Acceptance is non-judgment and cooperation says that I can have
what I choose and you can have what you choose even if they are polar opposites. It does not mean we each compromise our beliefs and truths to reach some middle ground. Acceptance presupposes an understanding that we are not pawns on God’s chessboard. We are the game itself. It presupposes that your moves are in alignment with your intent and value fulfillment as much as my moves are in alignment with mine. There are no checkmates except those we impose upon ourselves; and we impose those checkmates by not recognizing the beliefs that feed our projectors and by not accepting our choices and the choices of others.

In looking at the pro choice/pro life “debate” I think we can all see the beliefs that undergird each position’s point of view. There are no bad beliefs, but how many of you judge the beliefs of the other side? How many pro lifers judge a woman who aborts a fetus as being Godless and a baby killer? How many pro choicers judge the pro lifers for trying to impose their beliefs on you, and for having a tiny understanding of God, and for being non-accepting? We are mirrors of each other, for neither side of this debate has moved into the realm of Acceptance. The pro life/pro choice “debate” is not so much about abortion as it is about Acceptance. WE both judge and that is what this polarization is all about; viewing our inability to accept.

BUT! If one is to buy into what all these posts in 21st Century Reality are about then there are some preconditions. The first and the biggest is awakening to the knowing that we are so much more than we believe we are, and the second is that God doesn’t need our help in anything, including whether to have a baby or to abort a fetus. Thirdly we need to examine our belief that this is a place of learning; a stepping stone – so to speak – to a higher spiritual existence.We are not lowly; striving to get higher. We already are higher. These beliefs, when unexamined, create tremendous automatic responses and judgment in almost all of our behaviors. We are here to explore and to experience. Everyone wins, despite appearances. Beliefs are not bad and they are not meant to be disposed of. They are meant to be examined so that we can choose differently if we so desire. So, here’s to PRO CHOICE, but not in the abstract outer construction that we see on our TV screens.
Bill Marshall

P.S. If you haven't already you might check out my book, The Forgotten Self, at Amazon US and UK