It’s the big pink elephant in the room. We all know it, but it’s like we’re not allowed to say it because accusing someone of being a hater is somehow supposedly worse than actually being a hater. But let’s break down why it’s so obvious.
One of the arguments I keep hearing for voting yes on MS 26 runs something like this:
As a Christian, a black American woman, mother, grandmother and OB-GYN, I know that every person is valuable and has a right to life.
So obviously you oppose the death penalty, and consider serial killers, child molesters and rapists valuable, and support welfare and assistance programs because those lazy jerks who refuse to get jobs are valuable, too? Right?
Why do I never get a yes on that question? It’s so simple. Either you really mean that every person is valuable, or you don’t. Clearly, you don’t, so why are you lying? What is it you really want out of anti-abortion laws?
I think what they really mean is that we’re all valuable when we’re first born, or about to be born, but we can render ourselves value-less by our own actions later on. Okay, fair enough. But apparently, they feel a girl/woman loses all value the minute she’s vaginally penetrated, whether that’s her choice or not. Once she’s been penetrated, then she’s just a baby factory and she should accept that. And I have this sinking feeling that a woman isn’t a whole lot more valuable if she’s never been penetrated. It’s not even like there’s a way for us to win.
Remember when it was all just anti-abortion except in cases of rape and incest or saving the mother’s life, and then abortion rates went down in the 90s, so suddenly it was anti-birth control and no exception for rape or incest or to save the mother’s life? When somebody keeps moving the finishing line like that, you have to doubt that their stated goal is their real goal. And the stated goal now is about allowing rapists to profit from their crimes and killing women both with pregnancy complications and cancer when doctors can’t treat hormonal imbalances. Let’s just ask ourselves what that suggests about the actual mindset of the people we’re dealing with.
Please, people, just admit that you hate women and want them to learn their place already. Your misogyny is so obvious. Admit it to yourself, and either own it, or get some counseling to figure out why you hate women so much. And yes, many of these misogynists are women. It’s called internalized oppression. Don’t ever think that because someone is in a marginalized group, they can’t rather amusingly find ways to identify with their oppressors to avoid recognizing their own oppression – or just to make their lives more comfortable.
A fertilized egg is not a human being. A human being is a fetus that can live outside the womb, and the law already restricts abortion rights accordingly for those fetuses. The law is already very sensible and reasonable. Why are you not satisfied with it? Because it doesn’t hurt women as badly as you want to see them hurting.
Seriously, none of this crap is about preserving life. It’s all about controlling women, and there is no other logical way to read it. Let’s all stop tolerating the pretty terms like “pro-life” and phrases like “every life is valuable.” Let’s raise the logical questions every time someone lectures us about this stuff, and make them confront what they really are: haters.
littlem,
People like that consider rape a natural if unfortunate part of being human. So do a lot of other people. That’s yet another reason why I ban comments about biological hard-wiring: baby’s first widdle assumption about people is they were born that way, and some people never advance beyond the thinking of two year olds, despite getting degrees and acclaim. People, especially truly deviant people like rapists, are MADE, not born, and there is nothing natural about it. Change the culture in the right way, and rape incidence would reduce dramatically.
But that’s worrrrrk, and we don’t want to do worrrrrrk, even if it means leaving our sisters, mothers, daughters and wives vulnerable to rape. It’s just so much easier to believe it can’t be helped, and oh, what a shame.
Jonathan,
Abortion in cases of rape (of which pregnancies are rare) is only adding an additional assault upon the woman in addition to the rape.
How is it an assault on her if she seeks out an abortion because she doesn’t want the pregnancy? How does that square at all with the meaning of the word “assault”? Or are you just putting words together in an order you think will appeal to feminists and fool them into thinking your diatribe is about helping women?
SunlessNick,
I have a friend who has a friend who had an abortion and felt traumatized and regretful about the experience as an assault on her emotions, therefore no woman should have an abortion.
sbg,
Or, by that logic, because I have known women who had abortions and experienced no trauma or regret, therefore EVERY woman should have one. 😉
BetaCandy,
This would result in massive spluttering and denial if I ever mentioned it.
Couldn’t have put it better myself. Excellent article!
sbg,
I have friends that had to terminate pregnancies whilst at university, and they all feel it was the right choice. They have all achieved a lot academically and are very successful. If they had decided not to have an abortion, they would have dropped out. Education wasted!
abortion is an issue because fundamental pro-lifers who show zero interest in human life once it actually walks the earth, have an axe to grind and want women who have sex, to suffer. they view being pregnant as punishment, as a penance for what eve did to adam. that, sex without conception is a sin, and thus a woman being impregnated is the ONLY reason she should have have sex. and if she gets pregnant, too bad. she sinned by engaging in sex and the child is her punishment to bear for wanting pleasure. i’ve engaged in conversations with ‘pro-life’ protestors, and they don’t care about life killed overseas in war if its children who are innocent, they don’t care about people who need help in poverty or sickness, they don’t follow any sort of morality or humanity in regards to helping a fellow human once they are beyond fetus status. they hate women, and want them to bear a scarlett letter for having sex. its why they are afraid of birth control and contraceptives, as well. they think sex is for babies. its why they thought aids was a ‘gay’ punishment from god.
ethan,
That’s just it. At the very, very least they should care what happens to born children as much as they care about fetuses, but instead there’s this stunning disconnect – once it’s born, the hell with it. Life of abuse? Poverty? Horrible terminal pain? Destined for death row? Eh, whatever. At least it wasn’t aborted. This stance is just so ludicrous, until you realize it all has to do with the gestational period, and therefore the mother.
What about those of us who do absolutely believe that the answer to your first question about everyones worth… believe the answer is yes. As a student nurse we are taught that this is called unconditional positive regard and I subscribe to it wholeheartedly. Nobody is the sum total of their actions or circumstances everyone is valuable purely because they are human including those who are yet to be born. I do oppose the death penalty, and consider serial killers, child molesters and rapists of the same value as everyone else. I agree and support welfare and assistance programs because circumstances and attitude do not reduce a persons value or worth. Being pro-life means valuing life across the board at all ages and stages. I believe that subscribing to the idea of pro-abortion means taking the view that “we are all equal, some are just more equal than others” (George Orwell). I do not have the right to decide who lives and who dies, who has value and worth and who doesn’t. I am not a hater of other women or myself or any other human being.
How can you not see the lie in what you’re saying? Your position condemns, for just one example, little girls who’ve been raped, often by family members, to bear the offspring no matter what it does to the girl – and also no matter that her child will almost surely be as vulnerable to the rapist as she is. Clearly you not only see rapists as “as valuable as everyone else”, but also see their victims as less valuable than fetuses. That’s your position. It is hateful. Please own that.
Yes, own your view that you consider BORN human girls and women as second-class, non-human citizens, over which a one-month old clump of nonviable cells has priority and deserves more consideration and care. Because if you truly wanted to end poverty and stop violence against defenseless BORN children, you would endorse the lifesaving contraception and abortions that have prevented such horrors from escalating to affect the majority of Americans.
Romania during the reign of Nicolae Ceaușescu provides all of us with a keen understanding of just how badly society can and will go off the rails if women are stripped of bodily autonomy and turned over to the State to serve as incubators at gunpoint. And the sky-high maternal and fetal death rates of women and GIRLS across the developing world illustrate why forcible pregnancy often results in zero lives saved and a high body count.