Abortion Gang

Trigger warning for anti-abortion violence, violence against women, gruesome imagery, threats, etc.

Sophia wrote a post a day or two ago about being a Tebow fan and being pro-choice. To reconcile the fact that she loves watching the football player and that he’s anti-choice, she talked about how she’s going to donate to a pro-choice organization every time he scores a touchdown. Who knew that what riles up anti-abortion folks is not the potential to help women and their (already existing) children, but defending a football star and insulting bloggers they’ve never met?

Instead of publishing the dozens of insulting, hateful, and blatantly violent comments and emails we’ve gotten over the last 48 hours, below are some highlights (lowlights, really), in case you had any doubts about what the anti-choice movement is really about: shaming, disrespecting, and hating women.

Some people thought they’d be really smart and donate to their local anti-abortion organization instead. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

You know what, for every touchdown Tebow scores, I think I’ll donate money to my local pregnancy care centre. Dare to disagree with that, and you’ll expose yourself as the anti-choice people you really are…since if you’re really pro-choice, you should respect my right to donate my money to something that will really help women. GOOOOOOOOOOOO, Tebow!!

Others thought that insulting Sophia and telling us all we should die was the way to get us to change our minds (nope, still doesn’t work).

This is genuinely pathetic in every way. Sophia, you are a pretentious piece of garbage. It pains me that your mother didn’t have enough sense to abort you when she had the chance. I’m sure she’s really proud of you. Get a life, and if you love abortions so much why dont you go f-ck yourself and jam a wire hanger up your snatch.

Definition of anti-abortion respect and kindness there, am I right? Other folks decided to go straight up medical and take us to task for being sluttly abortion lovers.

Who devotes this much time and energy advocating the act of sucking out a human fetus from a woman’s uterus using a vacuum. I don’t mind if you’re pro choice, but my god this is dreadful. You guys must really have a lot going for you. You guys are like abortion addicts. I bet for every one girl participating in this blog there are 7 terminated pregnancies. Nasty ass ho’s. NASTY.

And then there’s the folks who just couldn’t resist getting all World War II on us, claiming that we’re discriminating against Tebow a la Hitler. As a Jew, I get particular joy out of this. You want to make this about the Holocaust? Try me, fools.

You are discriminating against someone who has every right to display his faith, just as you have every right to display yours without prejudice from those around you who would disagree.  The hatred oozing from you is astonishing!!  Hatred for what!??!  Someone who believes in God??  Just because you don’t believe in God doesn’t mean He doesn’t exist…and I daresay one day you will experience the consequences of your lack of faith.  I would liken you to Hitler…for your hatred.

And, my personal favorite, the over-reaching Christian who hopes that Jesus saves us all (memo: already too late).

You folks are truely deranged.  Does Jesus save?  You’ll know for certain a microsecond or so after you cross over from this life into the next.  God luck.

Oh anti-abortion folks. Sometimes I wish I could just give you a hug and tell you that it’s all going to be ok. This isn’t a war on Christians, or your beliefs, or your precious Tim Tebow. We are doing the work, God’s work, if you will, that saves women’s lives, strengthens their families, and lets women achieve their hopes and dreams, all while you’re anonymously commenting on a blog post about football. You make our job so easy! Thanks for reminding us who is really on the side of love, kindness, respect, compassion, and justice.

A series a la Anti-Feminist Mailbag where we respond to some of the hateful and/or bigoted comments we often get on our posts.

We got an e-mail a while back here at the Abortion Gang in response to a post we had up, and I opted to address the ‘concerns’ of the sender. Not because I felt that the sender had put so much thought into their questions that they deserved to be responded to, and not because they had touched on anything that profound or original. Mainly because their message was so hateful baring overwhelming classist and racist overtones that I did not feel like they should get to sit smugly in the glow of their computer screen feeling proud of themselves for the baseless things they said thinking that they were helping change minds and make a difference.

Also, I wanted to address this e-mail, because I know a horrible truth. That there are others out there who believe just like the sender of the e-mail. Perhaps one of them can be reached through a thoughtful reply to these ideas. The message, in all its glory, is shared below. The name has been withheld to protect the ignorant…you know who you are. As you read, just remember to breathe. This too shall pass.

Here’s a novel idea. How about women make the CONSCIOUS DECISION to NOT get pregnant while they’re homeless, jobless, already have several children, in an abusive relationship, etc.??? Take responsibility for yourself! I’m not about to feel sorry for a woman because she’s pregnant with her 4th child (and probably 4th baby daddy) and now “the gubment” isn’t doing enough to help her out. Of course this isn’t indicative of all homeless women and I’m certainly over-simplifying the situation. But it’s comparable to the situation in many 3rd world countries. People are sick and dying, not enough food or clean drinking water, but they’re having babies! I don’t understand the logic.

First things first. A novel idea is one that is defined as new or unusual in an interesting way. Unfortunately you suffer from a bit of naivety in believing that anything you have proposed here is new, unusual, or in any sense interesting. So right off the bat, I had to burst that bubble, because I previously mentioned, I have heard these utterances in the past. Now onto your next statement, or rather should I say, modest proposal. Rather than answer it right away, I would rather make a proposal of my own to the sender and anyone else out there is prone to this same disrespectful behavior. How about everyone STOP JUDGING women and their situations, especially when you have no idea about their lives or their circumstances?? Mind the business that is yours and yours alone!

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A series a la Anti-Feminist Mailbag where we respond to some of the hateful and/or bigoted comments we often get on our posts.

This comment was left in response to Sophia’s post on the tea party movement:

Why do so many nodern feminists focus only on letting women abort, as if no other right matters? What about forced prostitution and sex trafficking? What about the horrible way Moslems (even in this country) treat their women? Did you know (dis)honor(able) killings are happening in the U.S. now, among the Moslem population? Did you know there is a push to let Moslems in America have Sharia law in family matters? What does that do to women’s rights? Wake up and smell the coffee, sister. There are a lot more issues threatening women’s rights (and their human rights) then just the right to scrape their uteruses out.

But since you insist on focusing on abortion, what are you doing to protect the right of choice for the women who are killed every year, because they refused their husband’s or boyfriend’s demand to get an abortion? What about their right to choose? Is it only women seeking abortions that have a right to choose? Or do women who want to give birth get the right to choose too? Or do you think women who refuse abortion aren’t really making a valid choice and are somehow asking for it?

Come on, show some outrage for the abuse and killing of women who don’t need, or want, an abortion. Considering how mad you get when someone is inconvenienced by a 24 hour waiting period, I’d think you’d have a little outrage left over for the women and girls whose lives are devastated by forced sex trafficking. Why don’t you show at least as much outrage for women who are killed. This regardless if she’s a Moslem who angered her family by talking to a man, or angered her boyfriend by refusing his demands that she get an abortion.

It is always refreshing when we at Abortion Gang get mail from readers telling us what we are doing wrong.

First Statement: “[m]odern feminists focus only on letting women abort, as if no other right matters.”

Reality: This statement couldn’t be further from the truth. I know I am speaking for everyone at AG when I say that we care about a vast number of issues. Dear Reader, if you had just taken a look at our blog roll, you would see that. I, for one, write my own blog entitled Finding My Feminism. On my blog I actually rarely talk about abortion – it is but one small aspect of my blog. The reason this blog talks almost exclusively about abortion is because that is its purpose. Dear Reader, when you come to a blog entitled ‘Abortion Gang,’ chances are it is going to be almost exclusively about abortion. Even though I have basically refuted your entire letter in one fell swoop, I will continue.

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A new series a la Anti-Feminist Mailbag where we respond to some of the hateful and/or bigoted comments we often get on our posts.

This comment was left in response to KushielsMoon’s post on college-bound feminists:

It will be difficult to make friends other than those few who share feminist views.  This is because the general perception of feminists today is as follows -

What is a feminist?

Feminists are resentful, belligerent and quarrelsome women.  They are also usually ignorant and misinformed with weak self control.  Feminists use to be called ‘men haters’ and ‘troublemakers’.  They have always been around throughout human history and their main intent is to create ill will, bad feeling, and malice between men and women.  The term to describe them is ‘misandrists’, who have an attitude of ‘misandry’.

The cause is the maternal instinct which regards men as either a mating object when in lust, or a potential danger to the family unit to be driven away when not, by making life as difficult as possible.  The male equivalent – male aggression – is the pack hunting instinct.  Throughout history this has resulted in armies and wars.

Mature and well balanced people recognise the problems and control their instincts and emotions using basic social skills and practical common sense, something the selfish feminist is very lacking in.

So if you want to make friends and be liked by the boys, avoid the feminist movement and it’s follower.

Though it continues to shock me that there are anti-feminists, there are in fact entire groups devoted to promoting misogyny.  Remarks like this may leave you speechless – it certainly took me more than a few minutes to digest it – so let’s dissect it one piece at a time. My comments are in bold.

It will be difficult to make friends other than those few who share feminist views.  This is because the general perception of feminists today is as follows - What is a feminist? Feminists are resentful, belligerent and quarrelsome women. Yes, sometimes feminists have had to fight to be heard, and yes an earlier generation of us burned their bras, and yes, I do resent every single instance of sexism – from the wage gap to those who believe little girls should not be given toy trucks to play with.  I don’t think that these are bad things though.

They are also usually ignorant and misinformed with weak self control.  Misinformed about what exactly?  Most feminists have a terrific grasp on the wage gap, on the availability of birth control/family planning/abortion clinics, the politics of candidates, and outside of gender specific issues, a grasp on current events, issues, and trends.

Feminists use to be called ‘men haters’ and ‘troublemakers’. Yes – by those who did not want to pay a woman as much as a man, or hire a woman who was equally qualified or let women’s votes sway the future of the country.  I like to call those people ‘short sighted’ because they sought to keep women from contributing to medicine, scientific discoveries, and our collective future.

They have always been around throughout human history and their main intent is to create ill will, bad feeling, and malice between men and women.  The term to describe them is ‘misandrists’, who have an attitude of ‘misandry’.  Actually, feminism is all about creating better relations between men and women – better, more equal, respectful, relations among all of us.  Feminism is not about hating men – it is about hating inequality.

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