Congrats, Pro-Lifers, You Won! Now I Have Just a Few Questions for You

[niyad]

Congrats, Pro-Lifers, You Won! Now I Have Just a Few Questions for You

What would your abortion compromise look like? What will you do for pregnant women who can’t afford a child? And more.


I’m writing this column before the results of Tuesday’s election are known, but I’ll go out on a limb and predict that abortion opponents will do very well. Assuming that’s true, we’ll be hearing a lot from them. We’re all familiar with their talking points—day-before-birth abortions, confused women, coercion, pro-choicers as a “death cult,” whatever that means. But surely that’s not all they’ve got. So in the spirit of rational discourse, here are some questions for abortion opponents—real questions, not rhetorical—that I’ve tried to frame in an open-ended way. I’d love to hear some thoughtful answers.

1. Illegal abortion. You often talk as if banning abortion would drastically reduce or even end it. You don’t seem very concerned about death and injury to women who have illegal procedures. (In fact, you tend to discount pro-choice claims about the danger of illegal abortion, while portraying legal abortion as vastly unsafe.) But what about the simple fact that illegal abortion is widespread in countries where abortion is virtually banned? In Brazil, for example, there are between 1 and 4 million abortions a year—at least as many as in the United States in a much smaller population—and more than 200,000 women land in the hospital with injuries or infections. Do you believe illegal abortion can be prevented, and if so, how? If not, what makes criminalization worth so much harm to women?

2. Compromise. You present pro-choicers as intransigent and yourselves as wanting modest restrictions: a twenty-week ban, stricter regulation of clinics, waiting periods. We both know that this is a tactic, and your goal is the end of legal abortion—yet most Americans don’t share this goal. Do you see any chance of a stable compromise? What would it look like?

3. Birth control. It is obvious to most Americans that birth control is the way to lower the number of abortions. Yet the fight over the Affordable Care Act’s no-co-pay birth-control provision is only the most recent demonstration that many abortion opponents want to restrict contraception too. True, a few anti-choice politicians propose putting the pill over the counter, but no major antiabortion organization supports contraception, and many opponents are redefining modern methods—the pill, the IUD and emergency contraception—as “abortifacients.” Is contraception a lesser evil than abortion or just more of the same evil? If the former, would you accept universal provision of birth control to any and all, including teens?

Follow-up: Would you support such a provision if it was limited to condoms, diaphragms and other methods that no one, not even you, can call dangerous or abortion-causing?

. . . .


http://www.thenation.com/article/188465/congrats-pro-lifers-you-won-now-i-have-just-few-questions-you

[hollysmom]

1. there is another topic they left out

infanticide. When Italy allowed abortion - the death of new borns dropped a large percentage. Especially "unexplained" deaths

[n2doc]

2. They don't care about 'compromise'

It's all about punishing the fornicators. They don't care about the fetus,either. It is just used as an excuse for more punishment.

[niyad]

5. only the women fornicators, of course.

[n2doc]

7. Of course

Men have to 'sow their wild oats'

[NaturalHigh]

3. I maintain that free birth control for anyone who wants it...

is the solution to most of this problem. Frankly, the government should bypass employers and insurance companies and just make it freely available. It would save a lot of money in the long run.

[niyad]

4. but then these woman-haters wouldn't be able to target women in charge of their

own bodies and lives!

[KingCharlemagne]

12. Free abortion on demand and contraception for women who demand it. A group with whom

I demonstrate in solidarity in Los Angeles has that as one of its core demands.

Women Organized to Resist and Defend (Word)

What we stand for:

Full reproductive rights now: Access to safe, legal abortion and birth control – on demand. We want healthcare that covers these services and access to it for all women. We want the information that we need to stay healthy, including an end to abstinence-only sex education in our schools.
Defend women in the workplace: Close the wage gap and provide equal pay for equal work. All jobs must offer maternity leave and stop penalizing working mothers. End sexual harassment at work.
Stop the budget cuts: Cutting federal and state social services punishes poor women. We demand government funding for social services that millions of working and poor women depend on.
We want full equality and respect now: Fight racism, sexism and anti-LGBT bigotry. Stop the exploitation and commercialization of women in mass media. An injury to one is an injury to all!

http://www.defendwomensrights.org/

[niyad]

6. . . .

[malaise]

8. They're onlypro-life for

the unborn.

[niyad]

9. not even that--all they care about is controlling, punishing and abusing women.

[malaise]

11. This is where they'd like to be

http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm
They think like this lunatics from our past

[niyad]

14. so true. thank you for that link.

[niyad]

10. . . .

[jmowreader]

13. Number 2 is a little strange

The most strident anti-abortionists want very much to suspend the Constitution's ban on ex post facto crimes so they can punish anyone who's ever had, performed or assisted in an abortion. Make no mistake, my friends: they would be very happy to seize Planned Parenthood's donor list and execute anyone whose name is on it. They would love to shoot anyone who was ever a Democrat. They don't want to compromise: they are right, we are wrong, we will receive no benefit in their twisted world.

[niyad]

15. you are correct, sadly. those people are beyond any sort of reason or rational thought. hatred

seems to be their only constant.