Abortion and Bananas

I was thinking this morning about how a banana is not banana bread.

A banana will never be banana bread unless a perfect sequence of events happens,

from removing its peel and mashing it in a bowl

to dumping in flour and adding the just-right ingredients

to mixing the batter and baking it, for some time, in a hot oven.

Only then does a banana become banana bread.

But all of that’s even after a feasible bulb — placed and nurtured in proper soil with good drainage, yada yada, for 9 to 12 months — results in what we know of as bananas.

And, of course, we have to choose to turn our bananas into banana bread, too.

Still with me?

I keep seeing folks who are pro-life say (in print and on the news) that every “child with a heartbeat” deserves to live.

Yes, every <child> does. Every <baby> does. No one who is pro-choice will ever argue that.

BUT.

The multicellular organism found in utero during pregnancy is not the same thing as a “child.”

What exists during prenatal development is not the same as the newborns into babies into toddlers into children into young adults, and so on, that we birth and raise and love and hold dearer than ourselves.

Projection is skewing the argument. Semantics are misrepresenting the truth of science. Hyperbole is robbing women of their personal decisions and reproductive rights.

And a banana is not banana bread.

Author’s note: I realize this is a deviation from my standard content here, but it fits my greater desire of sharing about women, for women and their empowerment, so yes, I hit “publish.”

Though I’ve never experienced abortion, I share for the women who have — whether only in theory or consideration based on so-tough dynamics, or in reality. Because of domestic abuse. Rape. Incest. Nonviable pregnancy. <insert your situation here>

I’d never dare tell a victim — or survivor — or any other woman — what to do with her body, with her life, with her future, with her very personal key to survival, healing, and path forward.

Janna