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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCongrats, Pro-Lifers, You Won! Now I Have Just a Few Questions for You
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 cant afford a child? And more.
Im writing this column before the results of Tuesdays election are known, but Ill go out on a limb and predict that abortion opponents will do very well. Assuming thats true, well be hearing a lot from them. Were all familiar with their talking pointsday-before-birth abortions, confused women, coercion, pro-choicers as a death cult, whatever that means. But surely thats not all theyve got. So in the spirit of rational discourse, here are some questions for abortion opponentsreal questions, not rhetoricalthat Ive tried to frame in an open-ended way. Id love to hear some thoughtful answers.
1. Illegal abortion. You often talk as if banning abortion would drastically reduce or even end it. You dont 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 yearat least as many as in the United States in a much smaller populationand 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 abortionyet most Americans dont 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 Acts 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 methodsthe pill, the IUD and emergency contraceptionas 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?
4. Poverty. Six in ten women who have abortions are already mothers. More than 40 percent are poor, and many more are on the edge. Maybe some of them would have the baby if they had more support: healthcare, daycare, housing, jobsand protection from job discrimination for pregnant women and mothers. Charity cant begin to supply all these needs, and the antiabortion movement is firmly allied with the Republican Party, which cuts social programs wherever it can. What do you offer to women who want to end a pregnancy because they cant support another child?
. . .
http://www.thenation.com/article/congrats-pro-lifers-you-won-now-i-have-just-few-questions-you
randys1
(16,286 posts)The article is excellent.
Women will die in alleys, doctors will go to prison, Women will go to prison, and that is just the start.
Less money will go to help poor, etc.
Aint it grand!
President Carson will have much to say about this issue, by the way.
niyad
(113,583 posts)Bigmack
(8,020 posts)niyad
(113,583 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)And since they are reacting to an irrational thought - anything that is common sense, is cast aside for the Big Man in the Clouds. Too me, it is insanity driven home by a billion dollar 'holy charlatan market' and the 'infotainment' channels like Glenn Beck and Foxnews.
Lazy people never try and give their brain a workout, they let the Big Man in the Clouds do all their thinking for them. Which is not true anymore either - they let someone much richer and probably more criminal then they are, make all their decisions for them. Then that rich person laughes all the way to the bank and society suffers as a whole for it.
niyad
(113,583 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)None of them are on the Right spectrum of the political field. I don't want to come off as sounding harsh toward liberal Christians, but their opposites (fundies) are horrible people and I believe most know who I mean when I reply so informally.
No doubt I have offended someone, but I have to speak the truth the way I see it and it is all insanity. So expecting common sense solutions from people that live day in and day out irrationally and sometimes dangerously...is insanity in itself.
I feel for you niyad. This is a Dark Ages for American Women. In 2015! 20fucking15!
And if people don't know what I am talking about, they have not been paying attention to what the red states are doing. It's beyond criminal and are human rights violations imo.
niyad
(113,583 posts)it several years ago.
dark ages, dark times indeed. the insanity of it almost boggles the mind.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)thanks niyad. As usual, I salute your continued effort to keep women's rights in the discussion here at DU...
niyad
(113,583 posts)Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)knows who makes up the real death cult.
niyad
(113,583 posts)the entire lot of them.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)They believe in an invisible man in the sky. What can you say, except
and
niyad
(113,583 posts)bullwinkle428
(20,631 posts)If it was your call, would send the doctor, the patient, or both to jail for their "crime" of an abortion? Nearly all of them start sputtering and trying to divert the conversation in another direction.
K&R.
niyad
(113,583 posts)bullwinkle428
(20,631 posts)Thanks for bringing up some fantastic points that should (in a perfect world) make opponents stop and think before simply regurgitating their standard talking points.
niyad
(113,583 posts)Skittles
(153,199 posts)they don't give a damn about babies, only fetuses
niyad
(113,583 posts)pre-natal care.
in reality, the only thing they truly care about is complete control over women.
they're not pro-life, they are anti-women
ibegurpard
(16,685 posts)Let them die. It's the wages for their "sin"
They don't give a shit about children...they are pissed about women having the ability to have consequence free sex.
niyad
(113,583 posts)blm
(113,101 posts)Because they know damn well the upper financial class will ALWAYS be able to have access to reproductive rights including abortion, and call it a needed 'vacation' as they always have.