If I were to get pregnant tomorrow, or the next day, or the next year, or the next, next, next year, I would probably get an abortion. Does that make me a bad person or an honest one? Maybe both. But that choice should always be my own.

Abortion: a complex and emotional issue with impassioned, clashing arguments. Despite what anyone claims, this topic doesn’t boil down to one question. Rather, it is a complicated web of questions.

I will be the first to say that I do not know all of the answers.

I can only hope to provide the perspective of someone who should really matter when it comes to the issue of abortion: a teenage girl. I cannot reckon with those who see this as a black and white issue; I will, however, speak to those who accept its discomforting gray areas.

As a side note, I cannot stand the labels “pro-choice” and “pro-life,” as they represent propaganda at its finest. Just because I’m not pro-life doesn’t mean that I am pro-death or that I devalue human life, as the name seems to insinuate.

“Pro-life” advocates encourage alternatives like adoption, but in reality adoptions are uncommon. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of infants given up for adoption in the States was a mere 1 percent from 1996-2002. The emotional bond formed during pregnancy often makes it too difficult for the mother to give away her baby. Often, that baby will instead be brought into a world of unfit parenting.

New research only adds to the complex contentions in this debate like the fetus’s ability to feel pain occurring earlier in a fetus’s development. Therefore, if a timeframe for when a woman can obtain an abortion is based on these scientific findings, abortions will eventually be banned altogether.

The answer has to be based solely on the principle of the matter; a woman should always have the power to make choices about her own body.

Allow me to be blunt in saying that the abortion debate wouldn’t exist if it were men who carried babies. The government would never try or succeed in forcing a man to have a baby against his will, which makes this, in some ways, a sexist debate.

Another important fact to consider is that illegal abortions are unsafe. According to emedicinehealth.com, illegal abortions account for 13 percent of all deaths of women worldwide. Death from abortion is almost unheard of in places where they are legal.

In light of the upcoming election, Republicans seem to be shying away from social issues like abortion in favor of economic ones.

According to CNN, the draft language for the 2012 Republican Party platform includes support for a constitutional ban on abortion without specifying exclusions in the cases of rape or incest.

This could incur a scary future for all of us. Especially because of what this could mean for women’s rights in this nation; banning abortion could open the door to further intrusions on women’s rights.

The most infuriating aspect of this issue is precisely who will decide its fate. A woman’s right to an abortion should not lie in the hands of a Congress that is overwhelmingly dominated by 50-70 year old men.

Furthermore, no father is required to stick around once that baby is born, and when it comes to unwanted pregnancies, he often won’t. The mother is solely responsible for facing the consequences of what was originally a joint decision to have sex, or in cases of rape, the man’s alone.

None of this means we should be encouraging abortions. Nor should they be used as a form of birth control. Personally, I wouldn’t get one if I got pregnant due to unprotected sex or if I were past the first trimester.

Luckily, 88 percent of abortions are obtained within the first 12-13 weeks of the last menstrual period, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that works to advance reproductive health.

Abortion rights are especially relevant to teenage girls. Mistakes do happen, even when using proper birth control methods. It’s easy to say now that you wouldn’t exercise your right to an abortion if you got pregnant in high school or college. But until it’s actually happening to you, it’s impossible to rule out that option.

I hope that if you are reading this and you have a daughter, you are taking necessary steps to ensure that she has the power to make these decisions for herself, should she ever have the burden of doing so. And if you are a teenage girl, it’s about time you consider what a ban on abortion rights could mean to you and women everywhere.