ARTICLE BY MAPAKO GAMUCHIRAI
The global village has been in shambles after the United States of America made abortion illegal in most of its states.
Caitlin Moran a famous writer said, “I cannot understand anti-abortion arguments that centre on the sanctity of life. As a species we’ve fairly comprehensively demonstrated that we don’t believe in the sanctity of life. The shrugging acceptance of war, famine, epidemic, pain and life-long poverty shows us that, whatever we tell ourselves, we’ve made only the feeblest of efforts to really treat human life as sacred”.
Those from the USA and the rest of the world who strongly believe that abortion should be legal, have taken to their social media to criticise USA for making abortion illegal but still fails to put strict laws on the purchasing of guns by citizens especially after so many mass shootings across the country including an elementary school.
It is not news that abortion is illegal in Zimbabwe and connected with immorality in the society however, due to the change in people’s mind-sets, this topic has sparked many questions in most countries including Zimbabwe where abortion can only be performed in special cases. However, one can easily argue that it is an even bigger crime to bring a child into an unstable environment. Zimbabwe especially has a rising number of teen pregnancies and sometimes minors who can barely financially support themselves but have to bring a child into the picture. Ironically the government is only concerned about a child before conception but after that it is completely forgotten and the unready mother carries all the responsibilities.
From a psychological point of view broken parents raise broken children. By indirectly forcing a child on a woman who is not ready for parenthood, the government raises a broken future generation

Pope John Paul II a renowned religious leader of his time said, “Laws which legitimize the direct killing of innocent human beings through abortion or euthanasia are in complete opposition to the inviolable right to life proper to every individual; they thus deny the equality of everyone before the law”. The likes of prophet Magaya, Makandiwa, have also been firm believers of this view because although the public across the world may think differently, the Christian world are pro-life and share the same mind which maintains that abortion is a sin. However, the view that abortion is murder according to public opinion has been said to be an outright lie. According to the CDC almost all abortions happen before the 13th week and a foetus without a cerebral cortex cannot think or feel and this is before the 27th week.
“Until the state or the church takes full responsibility for a new-born, no bill or bible is qualified to even offer suggestions on a woman’s right to abortion”, said Abhijit Naskar.

Margaret Sanger said that no woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother. From a feminist point of view, making abortion illegal is a clear violation of human rights for women and shames the government for imprisoning a woman who aborts longer than a man who rapes. In the likes of USA, abortion is punishable by 15 years while rape is only three years. Most woman have taken this as the government’s modern way of telling women that they belong at home giving birth and cooking for their husbands. It is an inarguable fact that no matter what the law says, abortion is a part of everyday life and women have always had them, they always have and they always will.
The question of the century now is, are they going to have good ones or bad ones?

Self-discovery comes when you are comfortable with who you are and what you are.
Self-discovery is not pushing yourself aside and trying to find someone else out there, self-discovery is searching within.
Being around people who don’t remind you of your weaknesses makes you realize that there is more to people than weaknesses and strengths but what lies in-between and that’s a moment of self-discovery.
Being around people who do not remind you every day that you are different makes you realize being different is the art of loving. Eyes to see the beautiful differences in all of us.
Hearts to feel different emotions, pain, anger, love, hatred.
Our ability to identify what makes us different from others.
Who I am is a lot of people. When I’m with my family I’m a daughter, I’m a sister, I’m a mother, I’m a brother, I’m a father. To my friends I’m a friend. Ask the right question, what I like is not who I am.
Sometimes who I am depends on who you are to me. So ask yourself, who are you to me? Because self-discovery does not come from identifying what and who you like, self-discovery is learning how many things you can be to different people and be able to accept that. Self-discovery comes from knowing to what lengths you can go until your guilt cannot let you sleep at night, who we really are comes from what we are capable of when the consequences of our actions are taken out of the equation. Self-discovery does not come from answering the question “who are you”. I think who we are and who we will be will always be a mystery to us. Who we or self-discovery is knowing that you might wake up a different person tomorrow and be able to embrace that.
I can be who I am without any guilt and that is how I know I am being who I actually am.
We cannot find who we are in relationships, but only who we are when we are with them.
We find who we are every day, at university, at home, at church, in times when life has knocked us down, on a cool morning listening to your favorite song, when a stranger smiles at you, when you help that homeless guy with some change and you feel warm inside, when that little kid on the bus smiles at you, or when you eat your favorite ice cream, when the old lady down the street tells you look pretty or when you look into the mirror and you love who you have become and you like what you see but we self-discover. Self-discovery does not come from a long journey but from the smallest moments we experience every day, it is those moments that tell us WHO WE REALLY ARE.

Who am I?, who are we? I know who I am, I know what I want, it is the world that is trying to convince me that I am not who I am. Asking me who I am does not encourage me to go on a soul searching journey, it only awakens a dilemna as if who I already am is not good enough. But who gets to decide. I am who I am. I am a blind believer of love, living life as if it was a film. I am she who believes forevers are just single moments put together, untainted by the harsh reality, memories pure from the bagy eyes and the long nights

I had a dream, a beautiful dream that felt like a nightmare. The green grass caught in my toes it felt so real, like a walk in the park. I had a dream i shared my hidden scars with the world and it showed me its sympathy in return. I could hear the annoying sound of the old swing, it felt so real. I had a dream i had a visible scar, real to everyone who looked at me, i could feel the dozen pair of eyes staring at me, the faint at heart had the pairs that felt terrified of me, so much i was terrified for me.
I was scarred by a monster and the world saw me as a monster, the emotions felt so real and i begged, “please let this be a dream”. I had a dream my hidden scars made me a survivor but the scars on my face made me monster. I was taking a walk in a beautiful park, but the world felt so ugly, it hated me because of my scars, like pain that is not hidden is not real pain. I had a dream the world hated me for the scar on my face because i reminded them of how evil the world really is. I had a beautiful dream where i was proud of my scars but the world hated me for not hiding my pain.
So i woke up and i was not sorry.

I looked into the world for healing but I could not find a remedy, then I looked within me and instead of healing I got carried away counting the scars. So I sat down with a black pen and white paper but it was too bright to relate to my sad sentences, so I rammaged  through my drawer for a darker paper dark enough to withstand my tears accompanied by the heartbreaking phrases. I sound sad but its only because i want to break your heart all over again so I know how to put it back together again. This will break your heart and heal your heart. My words became like sad eyes calling out for help because I was not enough to keep me safe from myself

So I know I look okay but this will probably only last for a second, so please don’t take your eyes off me.