(no subject)

[noahgibbs]

Hm. I was reading an article by pro-lifers about a march for reproductive rights. The merits of the article aren't worth going into (they talked about being there as unbiased and objective journalists, and finally decide on the summary, "this is pure evil").

But the way they continually referred to the pro-choice folks as "the pro-abortion movement" made me step back for a second and think. In general, I refer to the folks who want abortion made illegal as "pro-life", because it's their term. I don't think it's a very good description of their position, but I accept it as the appropriate term because it's the one they chose. However, they don't do our side the same courtesy.

Obviously I need to start calling the sides "pro-choice" and "unwanted baby". "Sir, as a representative of the viewpoint that women should have unwanted children, how do you feel about this?"

Comments

[rosefox]

Okay. I have taken enough deep breaths to keep from typing THIS IS WRONG over and over again in this nice empty little comment box that deserves better.

No one on either side of this debate is pro-abortion. The goal of both movements--the stated, affirmed goal--is to reduce the number of abortions that take place in the U.S. and across the world each year. They just go about it from different directions. One side is about preventing unplanned, unwanted pregnancies, because people who get knocked up accidentally often get abortions. The other side is about supporting women in taking pregnancies to term, because women who aren't supported in that often get abortions. That's it. That's the only difference.

The whole thing really pisses me off. All these people could work together, devoting their considerable joint resources to approaching both ends of it at once, if the second faction weren't controlled by people who think that contraception is evil and the first faction weren't controlled by people who think that being pregnant means never having to say you're sorry. Instead, money that could be going towards free condoms for teenagers goes to huge rallies in Washington and women end up going in for D&Cs because the only alternatives they know about entail being force-fed a dumbed-down guilted-up version of Christianity.

The only pro-abortion group I know of is the Church of Euthanasia. Everyone else thinks abortion is an awful sad thing and to be avoided if at all possible. But as usual with people, ideology gets to trample all over pragmatism.

Er, not that I care or anything.

[astralagos.livejournal.com]

Not entirely true - there's a strain of thought in the pro-life movement that argues that since abortion is a choice, you make a value judgment about the fetus when you decide to abort. In the U.S., we tend to assume purely economic or personal reasons for this, but if you look at it worldwide, the usual reason for aborting a fetus is because the fetus is judged undesirable from pre-natal tests. For example, in India and southeast asia, there's a large number of sex-selective abortions every year - so much so that India's actually been legislating prenatal gender tests.

This is actually the thing that freaks out some of the groups like PLAGAL - their worry is that if homosexuality is genetically determined and can be identified during a prenatal test, then gay foeti will be aborted.

One of the "bombs" that I, personally, feel is going to require a radical rethink of this entire debate is that, depending on what type of prenatal testing is eventually available, we will have to address questions boiling down to - based on the knowledge available, why did we abort? Was it because of a life-threatening disease? A deformity (although Charles Steinmetz and Steven Hawking might have issues with that), or did it end up being because of cosmetic reasons?

[queen-elvis.livejournal.com]

The only pro-abortion group I know of is the Church of Euthanasia. Everyone else thinks abortion is an awful sad thing and to be avoided if at all possible.

I find it obvious that "pro-abortion" means "pro-abortion-availability," not "pro-abortion-at-all-times-for-everyone." Maybe you don't. In any case, I don't think your viewpoint and mine are incompatible. I am merely looking at it from a political/legal standpoint, while you are looking at it from a social standpoint.