One day, Asa had a couple of days off for the first time in a while. Asa knew he needed a vacation, and he also thought his friend needed one too, so he called Ashton and asked if he would come along and Ashton loved the idea. So Asa decided to use their couple of days off to go to Florida as a road trip. It was a beautiful and sunny day and Asa and Ashton had a long day ahead of them. Asa started putting everything in the car, making sure the doors were locked, and making sure nothing was forgotten. Then, Asa went to pick up Ashton.
“Ready for today?” Asa said.
“Yeah..” Ashton said with more of a sad tone than excited.
Ashton looked sad and gloomy and was acting weird. Ashton was also wearing a full-on black outfit that made the atmosphere even gloomier. Thinking about if something was needed to be said and, if so, what should be said, Ashton said:
“My wife is thinking about having an abortion” with a sad tone of voice
Asa could feel the mixed sad and angry vibes that were coming out of Ashton.
“... Are you okay? Is your wife okay?”. Asa said
Ashton completely ignored the question, just pouted his mouth, and kept looking out of the window as if his world was shattering and Ashton couldn’t do anything about it.
Asa had no clue what to say. What would one normally say in this kind of situation? Would he be upset if I kept asking him about it? Or would he be upset if I just ignored the whole situation and tried to change the topic?.
“Is she planning on having done soon?... By any chance is it tod-”
“Don’t know”
The atmosphere was getting too tense that silence seemed like the best option at the moment. This whole Ashton sad vibe was so unlike Ashton. Neither of them said anything after that and silence was filling the air. A mini-break was definitely needed at that moment.
“Let’s take a break,” Asa said, “let’s go sit at that park and stretch out a bit”.
“Sure,” Ashton said.
Ashton was walking to the bench with heavy steps and winging himself around a lot. Both sat done on a bench in the park. The atmosphere between the two felt uneasy and uncomfortable. This atmosphere has to be broken. This is supposed to be a fun road trip after all.
“Look, I really don’t know what to say because I’m not in your shoes but I’m your friend. Let everything off your chest and I’ll try my best to help you in any way I can. It’s hard seeing you act like this and having no clue what to do.”
Ashton kept looking at the lake that was in the park and wind was passing through his hair. Not knowing what to do, Asa just laid back on the bench.
"Now what should I do? Ashton doesn't seem like he'll let anything out any time soon" Asa was thinking.
Ashton suddenly said: “ well you see, I’m not really a pro-choice kind of person in this situation, but my wife is”.
Now Ashton was about to get everything off of his chest and a friend needs to listen carefully to everything that being said. With a bit of a more high toned and not knowing what to do tone. Ashton said,
“And I realllllly don’t know what to do or how to feel”
Thinking carefully about what should be said in this type of situation, Asa said with a soft tone of voice:
“How about thinking about why you’re more of a pro-life kind of person? And also thinking more about why your wife is more of a pro-choice kind of person?
That seemed like a very well put together response that shouldn’t make Ashton think that Asa is against him or is trying to make it harder for him.
“Well. I do kind of believe that in a way, through this process, the women have control over another person’s right to live. Which if you ask me, is not fair” Ashton said in a tone that truly seemed that he believed what he said was right and couldn’t understand the other side.
“Umm well, she has rights to her body right?
"And that means she has the choice AND right to do whatever she wants with her own life and body, but does that seem a bit too forward? not saying everything is definitely the better option when it comes to dealing with Ashton" This is what Asa was thinking. The thoughts about how to build up the conversation in a proper way was all Asa could think about.
“But you have to realize that It's a person’s life we’re talking about! They also have rights and it’s not its fault that it was brought into this world!” Ashton’s tone of voice was slightly increasing.
The conversation shouldn’t turn out to be an attacking type of conversation. Taking it easy and calming down is what must be done.
“Let’s just try to think about it peacefully just so we can understand where your wife’s coming from okay? I can see that your wife believes that as a woman, she has the right to protect her own body and life which ultimately ends up giving them the choice of what to do right?”
“But aren’t the fetuses human too? Don’t they get to have rights like women?
"Looks like someone got upset, why is he so adamant about fetuses being human! They aren't even brought into the real world when they get aborted so how could they be considered human like us who live and breathe and need to survive? Fetuses are not considered “people” BECAUSE there’s no personhood yet so it’s okay to abort them if the person wished.” of course, thinking about all this without saying it out loud.
"But how are they considered to be human? they don't have personhood yet."Asa said while being careful about the tone of his voice.
“But see, that’s where I don’t get it!. They are supposed to be considered as humans who have rights!.”
Ashton seems to be getting angry "Now, how should I approach someone who's completely on the opposite end of my opinion and is so stubborn about it? Look at him, he doesn't realize that a person only becomes a person and has a right to life when they become a newborn. A NEWBORN has a right to life, not a fetus!." Then, while carefully trying to choose the correct words to use, Asa said:
"Isn't there a huge difference between a newborn and a fetus? that also means that the two don't really have the same rights right?"
Things shouldn’t go back to being as tense as they were and plus Ashton is opening up a bit.
“How about we look at the benefits of this topic? Maybe that would give you more insight into why your wife is going more towards that side”
“As far as I know, I really can’t think of any benefit that comes from abortion. Do you know any?”
"This is where I feel like I really have to educate Ashton on this topic but it seems like he doesn't understand how it’s also a health issue for women because it sometimes damages the women physically and mentally so abortion really helps out with their health, but I really don't think he'll get it since he's so focused on the fetuses life” Asa sighed while being lost in his own thoughts.
"You don't have any" Ashton said with an "I told you so" voice of tone.
“No no I do, It’s actually an amazing way of empowering women into feeling like they actually have control over their life and body” looking at Ashton’s facial expression to kind of see how's he feeling about that statement;
“I don’t really remember empowering women having anything to do with taking other people’s rights, don’t get me wrong, I would love for them to get all the freedom in the world but it should only be to a certain extent. That goes for any group of people.
Ashton seems like he will give up on explaining his feeling. Sighing, pouting, and rolling his eyes. What should be done next?
“Look, I feel like you’re forgetting the fact that this IS the women’s life too,
“Ugh, where did you get that idea from?”
"Why is Ashton is uptight? There are plenty of reasons why abortion should be justified. Ashton is so firm on what he believes in even if he doesn’t have a solid reply that can convince me. Is it maybe because he lived a different life? I wonder how he reacted to how poorly women were and are getting treated during his lifetime." being curious about Ashton's life, one must talk about themselves first;
“Through watching many people around me I realized how much the women in this world are lacking proper rights. And for that reason, I want to understand this topic more and make hear from others as well. I also want to do as much as I can for women and the first step is to have this kind of mentality.
“Asa! Why not give a chance for a child to live?”
"Child this, child that. The mothers of those "children" are also humans who have a life!" being frustrated with Ashton, Asa said;
“The women, who are also their mothers, would know whether their child would suffer in life right? So for that, they also have the right to abo-”
“Of course not!. It’s someones else’s life so they decide for themselves”
The atmosphere is heating up and Ashton looks like he’s on fire and doesn’t get the other side’s point of view at all. Therefore, a simple statement of opinion won't harm or change anyone at the end of the day.
“Look, I believe, that women don’t have the rights they’re supposed to have and that women need more rights that give them the right to have control over their life and body” Just like abortion but calming the situation is the first priority right now. “It’s also the women’s right to privacy in many ways. This situation, like any other situation, is based on moral judgment
Even though abortion should be seen as a normal thing by now. It’s still a tough opinion to change for everyone, just like Ashton’s opinion. It’s rock-solid!.
“But we are not only talking about women’s lives, but we are also talking about another human’s life. I’m pro-life. Humanity needs humans and that’s the only way we can move on in this world. Abortion is obviously taking away that major part of humanity” Ashton said with a desperate tone.
This is truly based on morals. Ashton doesn’t look so happy but he doesn’t look as tense as he was in the car. sitting quietly as if every word that was put out into the world during this conversation was getting absorbed
“I guess there’s always two opposite sides to a situation. I’ll study more about this topic. There is more to it than we know” Asa said with a bright smile on his face.
“Same here. That was quite the conversation we had ha?”
Both of them started laughing and finally, the atmosphere got a bit lighter. it was obvious that it was time to put aside the seriousness and enjoy the road trip.
Reflective author’s note:
This piece was really hard to write. The main reason being that I had to basically take on and develop a character that’s not who I am or what my opinions are at all. Of course, even if I tried, I wouldn’t have been able to imagine and create a character who is the opposite of me without all the research I did. This research gave me the real reasons why many pro-life are the way they are. Not only did it make my writing process easier, but it also gave me the opinions and thoughts of the people who I felt like are on the opposite side of the bridge. I felt like I was slowly walking across the bridge and seeing the two opposite opinions collide. I could see their differences but also their similarities. It definitely made me drop my solid rock wall on this matter. I started off as an pro-choice but now I think there’s more to abortion than what I know. I’m not saying I’m a pro-life but I’m not saying I’m an pro-choice either, there just so much more to aborting than I know and I have to jump into it and learn more. Obviously this was the result of this piece making me do research about the opposite side of my own. This also showed me that it’s probably this way for a lot of situations in life. I have solid opinions on many things yet I never even bothered to research or hear the other side of the situation. This is how I and many other people in life are about many different situations in life/ this is what this piece taught me.
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