Boy, is that statement wrong. The two movements couldn't be more far apart from each other.
The anti-choice movement is, in all actuality, very pro-death. They support the killing of women and doctors, and they go on to disguise their real intentions by hiding behind the term "pro-life". They use emotional appeal, not facts, to brainwash people into believing that they are, in fact, for life. In our world, we consider it possible for someone to be pro-death penalty, pro-war, pro-torture, pro-back alley abortion, pro-killing of doctors and "pro-life" all at the same time. Whose life is it that they're supporting, again?
You know who I consider pro-life? People who work at blood donation centers, people who donate blood, vegans and vegetarians, people who adopt animals in need, doctors who save lives, etc. It's more than just talk for those people. They act to help defend life, as opposed to anti-choice people who say that they defend life, and then go on to do as much as they can to destroy it.
Pro-Life is a term that's designed to kill. The phrase "pro-life" implies that pro-choicers are anti-life. It implies that doctors who save women's lives are against life. As Dr. Hern says, pro-life "is a dagger of psychological warfare that is backed by hate and terror." Doctors are being killed because of anti-choice rhetoric. When they send out the message that doctors are pro-death Nazis who murder babies, they dehumanize them and brainwash people into believing that doctors are okay to kill. The term pro-life is simply a mask. It's a veil that is being used to disguise their true intentions.
"There is an hour to come...when all of us shall cast aside our veils."
-Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Minister's Black Veil)
Wow - you seem to be removing the veil by tossing a mud-saturated blanket upon it. Though I'm none too sure that you'll care for my opinion, I think you are painting with a mighty broad stroke.
ReplyDeleteI've never much cared for labels, but for most of my life most labellers would call me "pro-choice." However, I would presently be termed "pro-life." I have never been for any sort of killing and until 6 years ago I didn't think that abortion was a matter of killing. The thing that has changed is that, because of scientific development, I now perceive the "product of pregnancy" (to borrow a phrase from my choice years) to be a baby - a human being from the point of conception - rather than simply a mass of developing tissue
Because I am against killing, particularly of humanity, I cannot now support abortion as an option. That said, I must quickly add that I don't support the killing of abortionists. Neither is right in my way of thinking. What I do support & think incumbent upon people is that we need to make resources available to women who face crisis pregnancies - both during and after their pregnancies. I think we need to make sure that authentic positive choices be made available to women so that they don't have to make truly life altering decisions out of desparation.
It is a mistake for any of us to assume another's intent. I in no way hate people who have had abortions or who provide abortions. I do, however, hope that society develops to the point that we all may embrace life - from conception to natural death - to embrace that which is inherently "us" rather than spurning it.
"That said, I must quickly add that I don't support the killing of abortionists."
ReplyDeleteIf you support the anti-choice movement, you support the killing of doctors. If you portray doctors as murderers, baby killers, Nazis, etc, then you support the killing of doctors. You're helping to get them killed.
"I think we need to make sure that authentic positive choices be made available to women so that they don't have to make truly life altering decisions out of desparation."
By "life altering decision" I assume you're referring to abortion. Do you think that going through a pregnancy and having a kid isn't life altering?
"I do, however, hope that society develops to the point that we all may embrace life - from conception to natural death"
Except for women's lives, you mean. If you support forcing women through pregnancies, then you do not support their lives. Forcing people through pregnancies is tantamount to rape. You can spew out all of this stuff about respecting life, but until you start respecting EVERYONE'S life (including women and abortion providers), I'll feel free to call you out on your shit. Thanks. :)
The point at which we can respect the "life" of the fetus and the life of the mother is when the fetus can be removed at any point of the pregnancy and survive. Until science has advanced that far, pro-life only cares about the "life" of the fetus, to the detriment of everybody else involved. You are entitled to disagree with abortion but you are not entitled to scare women, harass women, and target doctors. You are not entitled to push YOUR beliefs onto MY body.
ReplyDeleteYou know, the "pro" life political party is the same party that opposes health care reform. They are the ones who fought SCHIP. They actively campaigned for the war in Iraq. I don't think most "pro" lifers are okay with doctors being murdered and I don't have to think that to conlude that their support for life is woefully limited and myopic. They do try to make those "authentic positive choices(???)" available which makes me even more pro-choice. I don't kid myself that they would continue doing that if we were to ban abortion. They opposed a bill to help children get the care they needed. They would oppose helping those women if there were no PR reason to do otherwise. I would need those hypocrites to respect more than just women and abortion providers. They would have to AT THE VERY LEAST respect kids born to dirt poor families who have to go to schools that struggle to churn out barely literate adults. Start there. Lets examine how many of those poor kids, dumped into abyssmal existences, end up being tried and sentenced as adults at the ripe old age of 13. Then maybe, just maybe, I'll consider revisiting this riduculous assertion that they have some respect for human life.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of problems with what Mary said up there, but there's one thing that really bothers me. And that's the use of the word "crisis" to describe pregnancies that are unwanted. Pro-choicers rarely, if ever, use the term crisis pregnancy. Difficult, unhealthy, unwanted, unintended, high-risk -- those are words pro-choicers use. Anti-choicers use the term crisis.
ReplyDeleteThis is a 100% deliberate choice of words. In one of my counseling textbooks, "crisis" is defined as a personal difficulty or situation that "immobilize people and prevent them from consciously controlling their lives." In the same book, the authors state "during times of crises, individuals are more receptive to . . . influence."
Is this not the anti-choice movement in a nutshell? They don't believe that women are capable of making reproductive decisions on their own. They tell women that an unintentional pregnancy is a crisis and should seek help from people who will make their decision for them. An unintended pregnancy, even a potentially lethal pregnancy, isn't a crisis according to feminists and pro-choicers, because we know that women have choices. Anti-choicers, at the very least, want women to believe they don't have a right to abortion, meaning they don't want women to know that they have choices. That puts the women in crisis mode, making them vulnerable to anti-choice propaganda.
Such cynicism can only be harbored by people who have an extremely poor opinion of women and a complete disdain for the human condition. Pro-life, indeed.
Very good point, FEMily. I never really thought about that.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought the prolife would be better suited being called probirth. They don't care once the 'product of pregnancy' has exited the uterus.
ReplyDelete