Thursday, January 31, 2008

Why, yes, I AM pro-life, why do you ask?


Back here, recent, incoherent troll "prolifemama" stopped by to regurgitate one of the Right's newest talking points -- that all of us who are in favour of reproductive choice should be described as "proaborts." That is, apparently, what passes for wit and deep thinking in the circles that PLM moves in.

If I read PLM correctly, the fact that some of us support the choice of abortion means we should properly be labelled as pro-abortion, in the same way that, if I say that blue is a perfectly acceptable colour for a new car, that would make me "pro-blue." While simultaneously being pro-red, pro-black, pro-silver, and pro-"Jacked up with racing stripes and Thrush mufflers." Or something equally inane. But, wait ... it gets ever so much better.

Given that pro-choicers are equally in favour of letting expectant mothers carry their babies to term and deliver if they so choose, then using PLM's own logic, we pro-choicers could equally well be described as pro-life. Or pro-birth. Or pro-baby. Or pro-family.

And won't that make for confusing conversations since, the instant you're described as "pro-abort," you should immediately counter with the fact that, well, actually, you're pro-life. And don't take no for an answer. If this sort of rhetorical sleight-of-hand works for the crazies, it should work just as well for we sane people.

"Pro-life": Because, when it comes right down to it, we have no problem whatsoever with women choosing to give birth. At all. Doesn't bother us a bit.

P.S. It's equally eye-rolling to read illogical yobs like PLM tell stories about women who chose to have an abortion, then regretted it immensely down the road, therefore concluding that that subsequent heartbreak is somehow abortion's fault.

This is akin to being fully aware of the value of a sensible and balanced diet but freely choosing to stuff your face like a grotesque pig for years to the point of morbid obesity and the inevitable heart attack, then blaming it on the food.

If those women regret having had an abortion, well, the choice was theirs to make at the time, wasn't it? I'm betting that logic will be entirely wasted on PLM. Time to move on -- life is too short to waste it on the stupid.

3 comments:

Ti-Guy said...

It's equally eye-rolling to read illogical yobs like PLM tell stories about women who chose to have an abortion, then regretted it immensely down the road, therefore concluding that that subsequent heartbreak is somehow abortion's fault.

There's a well-funded base of pseudo-science in the US that's churning out "research" in support of this thesis (being transmitted uncritically by the US media), forcing other health-care researchers to waste their time and resources refuting it.

As usual, I blame the media...the cause and solution to all of our problems.

JJ said...

Wow, I missed that little exchange.

Any choice comes with the potential for regret when you're unsure of yourself. I'd venture that most of the women who later regret abortions might have had pre-existing *issues*.

The vast majority of women are 100% clear on what they're doing when they undertake the procedure, and have zero regrets.

Anti-choicers deliberately try to deceive by focusing on the extremes and presenting them as if they're the norm -- ie., late term abortions (.03% and only for health reasons), women who later regret abortions (another tiny minority). This is one of the many reasons they have no credibility.

Christ almighty, what part of "choice" don't these nitwits understand?!

Ti-Guy said...

There was an episode of Bill Moyer's Journal a while back that addressed the issue of post-abortion regret that's being taken up by the anti-choice movement...it's heavily dominated by religious fundamentalism, which encourages followers to feel like sinners, which enables them to then move on to regret, confession, absolution and redemption. And then all of this emotional complexity is "researched" by frauds or incompetents and presented as scientific findings.

It's so fucked up.