The Sacrifices We Make

At this year’s Golden Globes Awards, actress Michelle Williams won a best actress award and used her acceptance speech to give what many are calling a passionate “pro-choice” message.  In essence she said that her choice to abort her unborn child enabled her to stay on the career track that led to her accomplishment.

There is no doubt that having a child is a life altering experience.  Even if you decide to give the child up for adoption, the act of bringing a child to term can sidetrack aspects of your life.  And if you keep the child and raise him or her, the changes and sacrifices you must make are even more profound, especially if it occurs in a time in your life when you are not prepared for it.

When a woman becomes pregnant, she is faced with an inevitable act of sacrifice.  She must either decide to sacrifice aspects of her future – her time, her career, a lifestyle to which she has grown accustomed - or she must sacrifice the entire future of her child by denying him or her entrance into this world.

In a perfect world, women would only get pregnant when they are ready to make the sacrifices in their own lives that are necessary to raise a child.  But we do not live in a perfect world.  And because we don’t and because, quite frankly, we are becoming an increasingly selfish and self-centered culture, women have become comfortable choosing instead to sacrifice their unborn children.

I don’t mean to imply that men are blameless in this.  Men have become every bit as selfish, if not more.  Our culture has enabled men to treat women like sex objects, satisfying their primal desires with no hint of responsibility.  We have somehow let men off the hook when it comes to sacrifice and that has made the burden on women all the greater.

In her moment of triumph, Michelle Williams revealed the tragedy of our time.  While there are many who disagree with my perspective, I can’t help but picture a much more compelling acceptance speech.  One that takes place on an alternate timeline, years from now, when the child Michelle Williams had instead chose to let live accepts a similar award and thanks her mother for sacrificing her career so that this child could grow up to achieve a moment of greatness.
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But alas, Michelle Williams exercised her right to choose.  And she chose to sacrifice someone else’s future instead of affecting her own.