"The only moral abortion is my abortion"

[distantearlywarning]

A friend of mine posted this link on his live journal last night, and I thought I would share it with you all here. It's an article with a number of anecdotes about how pro-life women behave when they are faced with an unwanted pregnancy, and is a perfect example of something that I have come to believe about the Right in the last year or so: their primary defining characteristic is a total inability to see anything beyond their own extremely small personal sphere, which contains their own personal wants, beliefs, values, etc... and allows no room whatsoever for the viewpoints of others, critical thought about whether getting exactly what they want now will hurt them somewhere down the road, or even whether what they want right now makes sense in terms of the values they demand others live by. Essentially it is a incredibly self-centered and short-sighted way to live. Not to mention totally hypocritical, especially in this case.

Some interesting clips from the article:

"I once had a German client who greatly thanked me at the door, leaving after a difficult 22-week abortion. With a gleaming smile, she added: 'Und doch sind Sie ein Mörderer.' ('And you're still a murderer.')" (Physician, The Netherlands)

"We have anti-choice women in for abortions all the time. Many of them are just naive and ignorant until they find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy. Many of them are not malicious. They just haven't given it the proper amount of thought until it completely affects them. They can be judgmental about their friends, family, and other women. Then suddenly they become pregnant. Suddenly they see the truth. That it should only be their own choice. Unfortunately, many also think that somehow they are different than everyone else and they deserve to have an abortion, while no one else does." (Physician, Washington State)

More at this link here: http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/anti-tales.shtml

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Well, the right is nothing if not completely hypocritical.

Pretty much the only thing that they ARE consistent on.

[willing dwarf]

2. Personal Experience is personal

Many of us who have had abortions feel deep regret for what we are doing.

Something this personal is too easily skewed by talking about it, most brushes you paint with are too broad for a subject with such nuance.

I wish we could express moral understanding on this issue without it always being a political football.

[abluelady]

9. Persoanl experiences

do't only apply to abortions. If people would just step back and realize they can't comment until they've been in that "place" we would all be better off. We need to remember to not use the words "never" and "always." They are very misleading words.

[wicket]

3. Great post, thank-you

I especially liked this one:

"Recently, we had a patient who had given a history of being a 'pro-life' activist, but who had decided to have an abortion. She was pleasant to me and our initial discussion was mutually respectful. Later, she told someone on my staff that she thought abortion is murder, that she is a murderer, and that she is murdering her baby. So before doing her procedure, I asked her if she thought abortion is murder -- the answer was yes. I asked her if she thought I am a murderer, and if she thought I would be murdering her baby, and she said yes. But murder is a crime, and murderers are executed. Is this a crime? Well, it should be, she said. At that point, she became angry and hostile, and the summary of the conversation was that she regarded me as an abortion-dispensing machine, and how dare I ask her what she thinks. After explaining to her that I do not perform abortions for people who think I am a murderer or people who are angry at me, I declined to provide her with medical care. I do not know whether she found someone else to do her abortion." (Physician, Colorado)

[distantearlywarning]

5. "How dare I ask her what she thinks"

Fundie shorthand for, "It makes me uncomfortable to have to think about how my own personal actions conflict with the values I profess to uphold, and I don't know how to deal with that, so I'm just going to blame it all on you so that I can continue to remain in denial". :crazy:

[DanCa]

4. I miss the good ole days when medical decisions

were made by the patient and the doctor only.

[Midlodemocrat]

6. In my circle of friends. I am the only one who

never had an abortion. Guess who they all voted for? :eyes:

[distantearlywarning]

7. Just out of curiosity...

Have you ever talked to any of your friends about this inconsistency? If you have, what did they say?

[Midlodemocrat]

12. I spoke to them at length about it.

Considering that they have teenaged daughters and sons.

I'll fill you in more later, but my 9:30 appointment just rang the bell.

[Coexist]

8. The best part, by far, are the statistics at the bottom:

"A 1994/95 survey<2,3> of nearly 10,000 abortion patients showed 18% of women having abortions are born-again or Evangelical Christians. Many of these women are likely anti-choice. The survey also showed that Catholic women have an abortion rate 29% higher than Protestant women. A Planned Parenthood handbook on abortion notes that nearly half of all abortions are for women who describe themselves as born-again Christian, Evangelical Christian, or Catholic.<4>"

[tenshi816]

10. I've posted about my own experiences

with this kind of hypocrisy before in the past. I've never had an abortion myself, but my mother had a D&C for "female problems" in 1969 before abortion was legal. Years later my father told me it was an abortion; my parents' marriage was breaking up at the time but my mother suddenly found herself pregnant and didn't want the baby because she wanted a divorce. For the rest of her life she denied that she had had an abortion - 'cause it was a "D&C", see, never mind that the result was the same: termination of an unwanted pregnancy. However, like the women in the article at the link, my mother was staunchly anti-choice when it came to people other than herself.

Also, when I was in high school I knew a girl - pretty, popular, from a very fundie family - who had not one, but three abortions over the course of our junior and senior years. All of them were arranged by her strongly anti-choice father, who was a deacon in their church. He didn't want people to know his daughter was sexually active, so in his mind it was OK for her to have abortions. Just not anyone else.

[newportdadde]

11. Not suprising, its a lack of empathy.