Why not begin here? This seems to be the topic of the month.
This is a response to this blog post: Anatomy of an Unsafe Abortion and especially the last paragraph. Dr. Gunter is right to be angry at the people who caused this situation, but I wonder if she, like many pro-choicers, is angry at the right people. While she can't be held responsible for her readers, it is pretty clear from the comments that her readers are blaming the wrong people. So I made a helpful list:
People who are responsible for back-alley abortions:
This is a response to this blog post: Anatomy of an Unsafe Abortion and especially the last paragraph. Dr. Gunter is right to be angry at the people who caused this situation, but I wonder if she, like many pro-choicers, is angry at the right people. While she can't be held responsible for her readers, it is pretty clear from the comments that her readers are blaming the wrong people. So I made a helpful list:
People who are responsible for back-alley abortions:
- Doctors who perform back-alley abortions
- Family members who pressure young women into having abortions
- Family members who do not forgive young women for becoming pregnant in the first place
- Rapists
- Men who pressure their girlfriends into having abortions
- Anyone who assumes that a young woman below a certain age should have an abortion
- Anyone who forgets that adoption is a viable option (and anyone who makes adoption a non-viable option)
- A general lack of support in our society for women who are pregnant and want to carry that pregnancy to term
- The Catholic Church for insisting that all life is sacred (both that of the mother and the child)
- Pro-Lifers who push for laws that give women time to make a full and consenting decision on whether or not to choose abortion
- Conservatives (because they all stay up late at night and think of how they can oppress people, especially women, right? no)
I would still blame the last three groups, for the following reasons:
ReplyDeleteThe Catholic Church, for:
-Opposing non-abortive birth control, thus increasing the probability that a woman will even consider abortion.
-Creating and perpetuating the unforgiving culture of shame that surrounds unintentionally-pregnant women.
Pro-Lifers, for:
-Being so grossly ignorant and short-sighted as to completely ignore the possibility of unsafe abortions.
-Ignoring the possibility of "forced conception," where a woman is forced to become pregnant against her will.
-Pushing for laws that restrict and reduce the time women have to make a full and consenting decision on whether or not to choose abortion.
-Assuming that women who choose abortion are always inherently immoral.
-Perpetuating the unforgiving culture of shame that surrounds unintentionally-pregnant women.
-Arrogantly making a political issue out of something that has zero bearing on their own life.
Conservatives, for:
-Hypocritically touting "small government" while asserting that the government has overriding authority over the contents of a sovereign, individual woman's body.
-Pandering to extremists who believe women should be forced to carry and produce the offspring of their rapists and abusers.
-Restricting womens' access to safe and affordable abortion.
-Opposing education on non-abortive birth control, thus
increasing the likelihood of unintended pregnancy.
As for the Catholic Church:
Delete-No form of birth control is completely non-abortive
-The Catholic Church itself does not perpetuate a culture of shame that surrounds unintentionally-pregnant women. Some of its members might, and they would be in the first list under "Family members who do not forgive young women for becoming pregnant in the first place"
As for Pro-Lifers
-Again, some of them fall under the categories of the first group
-I doubt you read my friend's blog post: http://thoughtsfromtheporchswing.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/doing-pro-life/
-Abortion is more of an ethical issue rather than a political one, but why can't an ethical issue be fought for in a political arena?
As for Conservatives:
-Here you've already assumed that abortion should be a right and I never assumed that in the original post
Also, you've committed two types of fallacies by using emotionally charged language and overgeneralizations. These are exactly the types of things that cause people on two sides of any debate to stop talking and start shouting at each other. I don't want to start a fight with you, I want to start a discussion. I fight won't do anyone any good.