Do you hold a negative opinion of women who have abortions...

[nickshepDEM]

and later go on to be staunchy pro-life?

I know these type of things should be evaluated on a person to person basis, but for the sake of this conversation just generalize.

I actually have a specific situation in mind. I know someone...

Who had an abortion early in her life, mostly for financial and personal advancement reasons.

Now that she has 'made it' and living the good life, she's staunchly pro-life and criticizes women who are contemplating having an abortion.

[BlackHeart]

1. Sluts, they are all sluts

is that what you were going for?

Now that we have that out of the way, how can you evaluate people other than on a 'person to person' basis?

[zanne]

4. You're right--it's a leading question. nt

[nickshepDEM]

5. No, I actually had an specific situation in mind. I know someone...

Who had an abortion early in her life, mostly for financial and personal advancement reasons.

Now that she has 'made it' and living the good life, she's staunchly pro-life and criticizes women who are contemplating having an abortion.

[BlackHeart]

16. With this stated now we can evaluate...

...the person you have described is a hypocrite.

[Panda1]

34. That's the word...HYPOCRITE

Just like Lieboy who obtained an abortion for his then girlfriend in 1971 and is now anti-choice. http://archive.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=159

[bigwillq]

39. Well....Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[IdaBriggs]

2. I have a negative opinion about ANYONE who tries to interfere

with *MY* medical care. The hypocrites are bad, but since they are murderers by their own decree, I expect them to put themselves in jail immediately (where all murderers go). It has a tendency to shut them up, especially when I start asking them how long they think they should go there. :)

[tjdee]

3. No one really publicizes their abortion, so I don't know how you'd know.

Your experiences make up your opinions...if she had an abortion and had some sort of life changing experience where she now feels that abortion is wrong, I can respect that a hell of a lot more than any pro-life man.

Generally, though, I have negative feelings toward pro-lifers. But more negatively? No.

[Glorfindel]

6. I have a negative opinion of the term "pro-life"

I much prefer "anti-choice," because granting these people the name "pro-life" makes me "pro-death," which is obviously ridiculous. Having said that, I defend a woman's right to change her mind, no matter how wrong she may be. My own opinion of such a woman would be that she's much like the wealthy man who opposes any kind of assistance to others less fortunate: "I got what I wanted, so screw you, sucker."

[Minnesota Libra]

7. Doesn't matter what it is in life, it's hypocritical to do something......

.....and then when we choose to stop that activity (abortion, smoking, drinking, etc) go on to condemn someone else for doing that same thing.

A hypocrite should indeed be called a hypocrite and not just social conscious.:wtf:

[iamjoy]

8. To Be Honest...Yes

I think, you bloody hypocrite - you got yours now you want to stop other women from exercising the same right.

I know (as another poster has already inidcated) some women have some sort of life changing experience, become "born again", etc. Some have the attitude "abortion victimizes women, so I want to prevent other victims" - and I think that's bull. The anti-choice crowd is making women who have abortions feel like victims because they are smart enough to realize that will win more friends than if they make these women feel like criminals.

[Ilsa]

9. There's an actress my dad told me about that has done this.

She even did an anti-choice commercial a few years ago, even though in the commercial she said she had an abortion many years ago.

MN Libra is spot on, though: it is hypocritical.

[BlackHeart]

20. It's a 'little' more respectful

to admit that you had an abortion and that's why you are against them now. Then what our original poster described.

[rooboy]

10. I'd have a higher opinion of Barbara Bush if she'd had a couple of 'em. nt

[zanne]

14. ROFL! nt

[HockeyMom]

11. My take on trolling Freeper

and Christian Family sites. Probably those women who experience infertility problems later on and/or those who subsequently "find" religion, specifically Fundie religious types.

To give any example, I went on that No Room for Contraceptives website. There was the story of a woman who was working as an activist for them. She had been on the birth control pill for years and when she tried to conceive after getting married, she had problems. She then said she did her "research" and found out that the Pill causes subsequent "fertility problems" (??) and also "aborts newly conceived babies." You really do have to understand that to them there is no difference between "aborting" a fertilized egg or aborting a 3 month old fetus.

God, murder, and fertility are the common themes.

[nickshepDEM]

13. Whos the trolling freeper?

[kestrel91316]

23. I spent decades on the Pill, and was always reassured by my

Dr. that it did NOT adversely affect future fertility.

Furthermore, the Pill does NOT cause "abortion of newly conceived babies". It prevents conception by preventing ovulation.

What a moran..........

[no_hypocrisy]

12. Yes, because it shows a lack of character in trying to go

along with the social mores of the current times. They feel that they appear to have "integrity" by admitting their "mistake", their "sin" of abortion and then recanting the decision, and now they're going to seek absolution by attempting to take away the choice to have an abortion to any women in the future. You know the familiar hackneyed story about the "Fallen Angel". It's theme and variation.

[pecwae]

15. She can dress it up

however she wishes; she's still a hypocrite. She took advantage of her personal reproductive rights without interference and now criticizes those who choose to do the same--hypocrite.

[noamnety]

17. I certainly see them as hypocritical

If a woman gets an abortion and then later regrets it, that's one thing. That's a personal demon they need to sort out for themselves, and I can't fault them for it - we spend our whole lives making decisions, wondering if we made the right or the wrong ones.

But there's no other word than hypocrite for someone who opts for a choice, and then seeks to deny that same choice to everyone else.

Especially if she is now living off the profits she earned by not being saddled with pregnancy, medical bills, raising a child at a time in her life when she couldn't afford it emotionally or financially, then she doesn't fully understand both sides of the equation. She doesn't understand what the sacrifices would have entailed.

My question for such a woman is: If you had it to do again, would you? And I don't mean that in a hypothetical way. Talk the talk, walk the walk. Challenge her to give up everything she's earned, go back to exactly what she had financially in her life at that time. Donate her house, her savings, her retirement fund, to a charity, and adopt a child with nothing other than what she had back when she was younger. Walk away from the husband, the support system, her family, and live as a single parent with no job and no savings, and only accept a job that earns what she would have earned with her skills at the time. In other words, strip down her resume to whatever skills and degrees she had back then. Try supporting herself on minimum wage, while arranging for child care and paying for an apartment. If she can't get an apartment, she needs to beg friends to put her and a screaming baby up on their couch, indefinitely, for free. Give up every advantage she's gotten as a result of her choice, and go back and live the other one.

She won't do it; we all know she won't do it. Everyday she decides not to adopt another child, everyday she decides not to donate all her advantages in life to an orphanage, she is making the same choice she made back then.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

18. That's a hard one

nobody is more annoying than a reformed smoker, for instance.

But if this woman suffered terribly because of her abortion and has since come to regret it, I would personally not characterize her as a hypocrite. Just emotionally damaged.

If, however, she is just following the conservative crowd because it is expedient to her lifestyle, she is contemptible.

[Skittles]

19. yes, I don't think simply changing one's mind is hypocritical

I'll reserve that for the congressman voting against choice while paying for his lover's abortion

[kestrel91316]

24. It's not changing one's mind that's the problem here, it's

the trying to deny others any choice at all that is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE.

Who decides? I DECIDE.

Not the church, not the state.........woman must decide her fate.

[Skittles]

27. oh I never said she would not be WRONG

I just would not necessarily call it hypocritical that she changed her stance on the issue

[CTyankee]

36. I'm a reformed smoker and I don't go around yanking cigarettes

out of smoker's mouths. But pretty much everyone now agrees that cigarette smoking is harmful. Not the case with using birth control. Antichoicers would LIKE the abortion issue to be like the tobacco issue and to some extent they have been successful, mostly by distorting "partial birth" abortions.

[KevinJH87]

21. negative

I think that there are some women who receive abortions who honestly regret their decision at least a little bit. This could be because they wonder what could have been or how her life would have turned out. However, the fact is if she had not had the abortion, there is a pretty good chance her life would be completely different and that she would regret NOT having an abortion. The abortion let her have a life that allowed her to regret her decision.

Now, the fact that one of these people decides to try to take out her regret on other women by attempting to deny abortions is wrong. Maybe it is not quite hypocritical because people are allowed to change their minds.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mtnsnake]

25. Yes, because their pro-life stance is a cover-up for their own past

I personally know of several people who fit your description to the T. They all feel ashamed or guilty for their past "sins", so they take on a "pro-life" personna later in life to give everyone else the idea that they would never stoop to such a thing as an abortion themselves. They are the biggest hypocrites on earth. Each of these people, btw, tries to keep their own past abortions a secret, and the only reason some people know about it is because we grew up with them when they were younger and news used to travel fast when someone had an abortion to avoid a shotgun wedding.

[prolesunited]

38. Kinda like the anti-gay pols and preachers

who are found out to be homosexuals.

[rucky]

26. Negative opinion of hypocrites in general. n/t

[Neil Lisst]

28. whether they ever had an abortion is irrelevant to me

It's their attitude now that matters, whether they've ever had an abortion or not.

[supernova]

29. Yes, I do

I have a negative opinion of the "it's only for me and not for thee" crowd when it comes to ethics. It shows a stunning lack of empathy for others and a real authoritarian streak that repulses me.

[espera17]

30. no

only if they continue to have abortions

[Hidden Stillness]

31. Let's Condemn the Male for Once, Huh, Pal?

No, but I have a negative opinion of males who desert and abandon a woman who becomes pregnant with them, then who claim, bizarrely, that she "got herself pregnant." A male abortion: "So long, babe, I never knew you!" I also have a low opinion of those hypocrites who would claim that a woman got an abortion for "personal advancement reasons."

I also have a low opinion of males who condemn women for having abortions, then they themselves either abandoned their own cancer-stricken wives (after cheating on them), forcing them to sign divorce papers in the hospital, then not paying alimony or child support until they had to go begging to their church for help (Newt Gingrich), or who condemn women who have abortions, then drive their own lovers to get abortions while "the wife" waits at home (Rep. Bob Barr, etc.).

No I know someone like that, I really do. This is a real case; really.

[MichiganVote]

32. Can a person change their mnd? Yes. Is there a law against it? No

I have no objection to anyone living their life the way they want for whatever reasons they want, rich or poor. I object to them dictating to others what their reproductive choices, or lack of choices, should be. Could be they're hypocritical, could be they're a lot of things. But one thing they are not is indulgent of the rights and opinions of others. That I object to.

[lynne]

33. Not necessarily. I think it's a case-by-case call. -

- Changing your mind alone doesn't make someone a hypocrite. Her personal experience may have changed her opinion and everyone certainly has a right to do that on any issue. Attempting to convince others of her way of thinking doesn't make her a hypocrite, either.

What WOULD make her a hypocrite would be her demeaning or belittling those who may choose abortion. While she may not now agree with their decision, it would be hypocritical of her to belittle them for exercising their rights just as she once did.

[ljm2002]

35. If they had an abortion, and now campaign against it,

...then DAMNED RIGHT I have a negative opinion of them!

Dayumn, it gets old. Bitches want to take my rights away, and the rights of my daughters away -- of course, it was okay for them, because THEIR case was special. Or, they have decided they regret it, so therefore everyone must (or should) regret their own abortions.

These people and their hypocrisies are the heart and soul of what is wrong with the political discourse in this country right now. These are the same women who want to sign away their own right to vote. They are dangerous demagogues and hide behind their right-to-life bullshit, wringing their hands over other women's uteruses. Tell you what: let them march their uteruses right down to the nearest fertility clinic and sign up to have those frozen embryos implanted. Do it now. It is their moral duty. They should start a movement.

[DemGirl7]

37. I kind of do have a negative opinion of someone like that

They are a hypocrite plain and simple.They, themselves went through an abortion, so they should know how hard of a decision it is for someone, and should know first hand that its not an easy decision, and should respect their rights if they decide that an abortion would be the best thing for them.

[LWolf]

40. I feel pity.

I think that she was not "ok" with her choice, has not reconciled it, and is now running hard and fast the other way so that she doesn't have to confront it.

As a female, I'm going to support reproductive choice. When someone regrets that choice, I'm not going to sit in judgement.

[sendero]

41. I do not hold a negative opinion of a woman who..

... has an abortion. If a woman has 3 abortions, yes, I hold a negative opinion of her.