Abortion Gang

Anti-choicers are always trying to trick pro-choicers into saying something that makes them look bad. One such example is when anti-choicers bring up sex-selective abortions. “If you support girls/women, how can you support sex-selective abortions!?!” they ask (Don’t get me started on the fact that you cannot abort a woman. Physically impossible). They don’t ask these questions because they’re interested in reducing sex-selective abortions; they’re just interested in making pro-choicers seem coldhearted.

But what if they did want to reduce sex-selective abortions? How would they go about doing that? Pro-choice, of course, already has the answer: Feminism.

Sex-selective abortions happen because the pregnant woman’s culture favors one sex over the other- usually, male over female*. For instance, in China, families will abort a female fetus or abandon a female infant because they want a male infant. Males stay with the family, and carry on the family name while females are married off to another family and basically lose their birth family. For this reason, males are valued higher than females. And for this reason, sex- selective abortions occur.

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Antichoicers are always talking about how women need to take responsibility. They say women should take responsibility for avoiding pregnancy either by not having sex or using contraceptives (though only a few mention the latter). They say women who are pregnant have to take responsibility by carrying to term (never mind that having an abortion is taking responsibility). They attack women who they deem have not taken responsibility (women who abort, women who get pregnant, women who get pregnant while taking birth control, etc).

But do antichoicers apply their strict brand of responsibility to themselves? Of course not.

Some anti-choicers and anti-choice groups have decided to attack Dr. Carhart as he works in a Maryland clinic. Their goal is to have Dr. Carhart kicked out of the building by the other businesses there because of the protesting. The anti-choicers figure if they hurt the other businesses enough by making a big deal with their fake abortion pictures, the businesses will think it is Dr. Carhart’s fault and ask him to leave.

But we all know, the actions and signs of the protestors are not Dr. Carhart’s fault. He did not force any of the protestors to stand outside his clinic. This is simply a case of the anti-choicers refusing to take responsibility. They even practically say so themselves!

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It’s always interesting to look into the mind of an anti and see what they believe. The latest thing I’ve noticed is that antis have a very, very strange view of who will make good parents. Many antichoice harassers will stand outside a clinic and tell any woman walking in (whether there for a pap or an abortion consult) that she would make a great mom. They tell her she deserves to be a mother and will instantly fall in love at birth.

Yet at the same time, a woman with a wanted pregnancy who has gone through fertility issues and miscarriages, who has researched the development of her fetus and given him a name, who has never stepped foot in or near a clinic- this woman they believe would make a horrible mother. So horrible in fact that they think her infant, once born, should be removed from her and placed up for adoption. Others have suggested that the mother has an emotional or mental illness that needs to be looked into.

For instance, Kristen on JillStanek’s post says “I think they should give the baby up for adoption – they are obviously not good parents.” Aengus O’Shaughnessy  replies, “Kristen, you are absolutely correct–these people should give the poor child to someone who will raise it properly.” Jennifer agrees: “The bottom line is these people are already terrible, terrible parents and they don’t deserve this baby. Lord Jesus, have mercy on this innocent child and save him from his own parents. How sick and disgusting this is.”

What made antichoicers hate this Glenn-Beck-loving woman so much that they want to take her child away by force? The simply fact that her husband put up a hoax website inviting people to vote on whether they would abort the pregnancy or not. Both prochoice and antichoice [Warning, link is to Jill Stanek] websites have proven the vote is a hoax. The couple wants people to consider how important voting is.

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The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was labeled a comedy event. But for some of the attendants, it was a chance to get out their message and find more support among the general public.

Planned Parenthood was one such group. Now, if you were anti-choice, you might think Planned Parenthood was out there promoting abortion. The truth is, Planned Parenthood was out there doing work which will ultimately prevent abortions. Planned Parenthood was trying to get more support for birth control. And not just any birth control, but free birth control!

Planned Parenthood currently has a campaign running called “Birth Control Matters.” This is a petition in favor of birth control being available for FREE under the new health care law. The health care bill has a prevention provision which requires new insurance plans to cover preventative health care for free. This is the perfect spot for birth control coverage- because birth control prevents unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.

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Sometimes, when you have two different groups of people on different sides of an issue, you can explain their differences by saying that they come from different backgrounds or that they start off with a different set of assumptions. Unfortunately, that is not the case in the issue of abortion.

The differences among prochoicers and antichoicers is whether one supports and lives in reality or not.*

Of course, this has been obvious for a long time. One very common anti=choice lie which has no base in reality is claiming that abortion is murder. Abortion is clearly not murder but that wont stop anti-choicers from claiming it is- over and over and over. This is an obvious separation from reality. Even when given the facts, which clearly demonstrate that abortion is not murder, they will still disagree.

Another anti-choice claim that is false is that the majority of (if not all) women regret their abortions. Now, anti-choicers not only ignore the established fact that most women feel relief and not regret after an abortion, but they’ve even gone ahead and tried to make their own reality by publishing non-reviewed articles on their websites and blogs.

There are other anti-choice beliefs which obviously have no place in the real world- like the idea that all pro-choice women hate babies, or all pro-choice women abort.

But recently, anti-choicers* have gone even farther. There is a website that I’ve recently learned about called Ignore Roe. The concept is, as stated, that they believe everyone should just ignore Roe v Wade- as if it never happened. Via their homepage:

We begin with the premise that abortion is not legal, and can never BE legal, because abortion is the taking of innocent life, i.e. murder. Murder can never be legalized.

Just like that- taking reality and making it disappear. Or trying, at least. Thankfully, most anti-choicers (at least the ones I know) recognize that abortion is currently legal (even if they hate the fact). But the question is will this movement of ignoring established law spread?

Antichoice clinic harassers constantly ignore law, like the FACE Act. Will they be the first ones to ignore Roe? Or have they already? The murderers among the clinic harassers, such as Roeder, seemed to have decided to ignore Roe and take the law into their own hands.

How can anti-choicers be convinced to live in reality, and to accept reality? Factual evidence will not work unless the opposition is willing to accept real facts. Rational, logical discussion does not work unless both people or groups are willing to accept reality.

* Obviously this does not apply to every single individual antichoicer.

It’s time to welcome abortion into the public world.

What? Abortion is already in the public world, you say? Politicians have positions on it, activists blog about it and laws are made yearly to restrict it.

Well, now abortion is getting even more personal. A couple of women have decided that writing about their experience on websites like thanksabortion.com or imnotsorry.net just isn’t cutting it. They have decided, instead, to tweet their abortion experience.

Being able to tweet your abortion is fairly new. As more and more women opt to use mifepristone, the abortion pill, instead of a surgical abortion, there is more of an option to share what is happening. Of course, it isn’t just the abortion itself which these brave women are sharing, but also the process.

A new twitter account called AbortionReality has just shown up, to take us through the process of obtaining and having an abortion. Already she has tweeted about the difficulty of finding the funds to afford an abortion, as well as locating a clinic which provides abortions. Another user, antitheistangie, was the first to publicly tweet her abortion. Now AbortionReality follows her down this public path.

No doubt, there will be many different reactions to people reading her tweets. Antichoicers are already trying to convince her not to have an abortion. Ironically, they are telling her “don’t just listen to one side.” At the same time, they refuse to accept her reasoning (which she shouldn’t even have to give). Prochoicers, from what I have seen, have mostly been giving her support. Which is great because regardless of our political views or job or marital status, women who have abortions are women who need support from the prochoice community. 1 in 3 US women have an abortion sometime in their lifetimes, but it’s not a label worn on the sleeve most of the time. Pro-choice activists can fill that gap by supporting women who are open about their abortions.

But not every prochoicer feels the same way. Some pro-choice folks keep to the philosophy that abortion is a personal, private matter- and therefore it shouldn’t be shared on the internet publically. I absolutely believe that these people have a right to their opinions. I also think they can still support women who abort while wishing they kept it private.

I personally think that tweeting an abortion can be a great way to show people outside the prochoice movement how difficult it is to obtain an abortion. Recent surveys show that many people believe it’s too easy obtain an abortion right now. We need to show the reality and educate people. Between the Hyde Amendment, blocks on insurance paying for abortions, waiting periods, forced ultrasounds and sidewalk harassment, many women find it extremely difficult to obtain a legal abortion. That’s why some people are turning to DIY abortions- with cow medication or trying to fall down stairs. These types of things need to be prevented by stopping and removing the outrageous and unnecessary restrictions on abortion.

The first step to remove them is to open up the eyes of the public. AbortionReality is doing just that.

YOU are what a young feminist looks like. And it’s that time of year again- when our young feminist friends head off to college. So here are a few tips for those heading to their dorm, whether it be for the first time or the fourth.

After going to school with the same people through elementary, middle and high school, college can be both a breath of fresh air and a strange new environment. While everyone at home might know you’re a die-hard feminist, you might choose to not shove your feminism down the throat of could-be friends at college. So here are some ways to share your feminism without making your new friends choke on it.

1. Get a Planned Parenthood magnet/business card and stick it on your fridge.

This is helpful in so many ways. First, getting a magnet means that you have to know where your local Planned Parenthood is. This means you’ll have an easier time getting there if you need to go for another reason (no being late for appointments because you got lost!). Putting a magnet on your fridge allows any friend who comes over to your dorm/apartment to notice it any time they go to the fridge to get a drink. This will allow them to know that you support Planned Parenthood, but they don’t have to have a discussion with you unless they choose to bring it up. As an added bonus, if your friend who sees the magnet knows someone else who might need Planned Parenthood’s service, they might be able to suggest PP to that person where as they previously wouldn’t have thought about it.

2. Like Planned Parenthood or NARAL or other prochoice women’s groups on facebook.

What do people do after meeting someone new at college? Of course, they go home and look that person up on facebook. You can learn a lot about a person by looking at their facebook page these days. Let your new friends know that you support prochoice groups without bringing it up when you first meet. It’s a great way to start a conversation without actually putting yourself in an awkward place!

3. Wear a prochoice or feminist button on your backpack.

The ” I <3 prochoice boys” shirt is great, but it may be a bit forward for you on the first day of classes. A button on your backpack lets you show that you support equality for women without making it the only thing people remember about you. Even nicer, someone walking behind you who sees your button might strike up conversation and become your best friend, where previously you would have only passed in the hallway.

There you go- three easy ways to share the fact that you’re a young feminist without alienating anyone. Do you, young feminist readers, have any other ideas?

There is obviously a stigma attached to being a pregnant teenager.

My question is, why?

What is it about teenagers that makes us so upset when they get pregnant?

Some people might say that it’s because having a baby ruins a woman’s life- her change to fulfill her potential in the future. But then why aren’t we upset at 24 year olds having babies? They still have most of their lives ahead of them too. Or what if the young mother wants nothing more than to be a stay at home mom? Not everyone is on a track which takes them to college and then a PhD.

Other people might look down on her for not using birth control. But this is just an assumption. Perhaps she was using birth control- maybe birth control and condoms!- but happened to be a part of the statistic that contraceptives fail. Or perhaps she was raped. Can you imagine how hurtful it would be to have everyone assume you had consensual unprotected sex, when you were actually raped?

Another idea is that people look down on young people for having sex in the first place. Perhaps they would look down upon every sexually active teenager, but only the pregnant girls are physically affected in a way that gives off their sexual status. Is this a position the prochoice community wants to be in? Looking down on people for choosing to have sex?

Perhaps you’re thinking “Well, kids shouldn’t be having sex!” Most people would agree with that. But what age does “kids” cover? 19 year olds? 16 year olds? 14 year olds? I don’t have an answer for that. I do have a personal belief about how young is “too young” for sex. But my personal belief isn’t going to stop kids from having sex. Kids who are told they can’t, or shouldn’t, have sex, will continue to have sex- they just wont speak up about it, wont get protection, wont get tested.

Which brings us full circle back to young, pregnant girls.

So why do we think teen pregnancy is a bad thing? And if it really is a bad thing, how can we show that while still treating pregnant teenagers with respect and dignity?

A couple of the antichoicers on twitter have started tweeting about a video which allegedly shows a Planned Parenthood worker being untruthful about fetal development. I haven’t watched the video myself (yet) so I cannot say whether something wrong happened or not.

I can say, that when a video like this comes out, I feel so disheartened by the hypocrisy of the antichoice movement. They say they care about “babies” but they’ve never used their anti-abortion tactics to help mothers and babies.

Every day, there’s at least one if not two updates on My OB said WHAT?. This website keeps track of stories of OBs, nurses, midwives and other birth industry people who lie to pregnant women, say sexist and sexually inappropriate comments to pregnant women and their husbands, belittle women, and otherwise do a disservice to their jobs and the patients they interact with.

Antichoicers have a platform. They have the space to share this type of violence against women (yes, it is violence) with the larger world, and create a movement to stop the violence. They have gone under cover at abortion clinics, so why couldn’t they go undercover on L&D floors? Heck, they don’t even have to go undercover- just share the stories that are already out there.

It wont ever happen. Antichoicers care about fetuses, but you don’t see any of them outside L&D floors offering to adopt unwanted children or even to pay the bills for the first few years of life. I have never seen an antichoice organization go after an OB or midwife that lies about fetal development to a laboring woman. I don’t think the antichoice organizations care if OBs or midwives lie about fetal development, as long as the fetus becomes an infant.

In the end, their often unfounded attacks on Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers is just discrimination against doctors who are willing to help women in need. Antichoicers are doing everything they can- threats of violence, actual violence, name calling, intruding, misleading and lying to name a few things- to stop women from receiving the healthcare they need. Their potential to do good, for a good cause, goes to waste.

This story is making me rage.

Let’s get this out there: as a Christian, I do not believe what this school did was in any way Christian.

For those who don’t want to click links: A teacher at the Southland Christian School in St. Cloud, Florida has been fired from her job for getting pregnant three weeks before her marriage.

This women already had five children and her first husband had died. It’s not like she’d never had sex before. But that’s besides the point.
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