Ya know - the thing about abortion is - if you don't want one - don't have one....

[lisa58]

...why is this an issue?

[tblue]

1. And forcing 13 year old incest victims to give birth?

Sorry, not okay.

[Xipe Totec]

5. I don't think the OP is advocating this

quite the opposite, IMHO.

[lisa58]

13. thanks

[Realityhack]

26. I think you misread the OP n/t

[billyoc]

2. I know! You'd think women were going to be FORCED to have them to hear these fundies tell it.

[thoughtcrime1984]

3. Some really need to have control over everyone. ie. Republican fundies. nt

[Muttocracy]

4. and if you don't want others to have them, support education, sex ed, and contraception. nt

[gateley]

8. EXCELLENT! nt

[Muttocracy]

28. well, I guess there are some who would oppose those too - every sperm is sacred and all... nt

[gateley]

29. But it just makes so much SENSE to those who aren't of the Sacred Sperm Church.

Those that are, there's nothing we can do about them anyway. Lost souls, as it were.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. I've never understood

Personally, I don't drink alcohol, eat sugar, or eat bread, because all of them effect my health in a negative manner. But I'd never advocate that everyone eat what I eat, drink what I drink! It's really the same thing--what is good for one person might not be good for another--but that doesn't mean that one way is better than another.

[begin_within]

7. Same could be said about gay marriage. As Wanda Sykes said,

"If you don't like same-sex marriage, then don't marry someone of the same sex!"

[ColbertWatcher]

9. But, but, once That One™ makes gay marriage compulsory, we'll all have to get abortions too!

Do I really have to post it?

Really?

:sarcasm:

There. I posted it. You happy now?

[XemaSab]

So when my assigned lesbian wife rapes me and I get pregnant

I'll have to have it, even if I KNOW it's going to come out of the womb looking like Rosie O'Donnell? :shrug: :scared:

[polichick]

10. It's admirable for these folks to needlessly slaughter hundreds of animals...

...but pro-choice people are murderers if they abort in the first few weeks of pregnancy.

[progressiveforever]

11. As a male past my prime, I can't get the abortion I always wanted :-(

[ColbertWatcher]

12. You wasted your youth, and for what!? n/t

[msanthrope]

14. But, Loretta, we support your right to have one. n/t

[Captiosus]

15. Conversation with my wife last night:

She knows I'm planning on running for General Assembly in either '09 or '11, so she occasionally comes out with silly things like "What would you say if..."

Last night's was:
"What would you say if someone asked you how you feel about abortion."

Without missing a beat:
"I'd say: 'Due to the fact that I have a penis, I am wholly unqualified to legislate, and uniformly opposed to legislating, what women can or cannot do with their uterus.'"

She doesn't think my choice of language would go over well.
I suppose I should refine it to be a bit less anatomically embarrassing?

[lisa58]

17. Good luck with your campaign and....

...your wife is right - there is probably a more galant way of saying it.

[Captiosus]

22. Aww, but I like the snarkiness of it.

:rofl:

Seriously, it disturbs the hell out of me that men, by and large, are the pushers of anti-choice. They don't have a say in it as far as I'm concerned. Sure it takes two to tango, and if my wife ever was in a situation where she'd like an abortion I'd hope she'd consult with me but, ultimately, it's her body, not mine.

By what right do men - or governments - have to tell women what they can do with their plumbing? I'm preaching to the choir, I know. It's just the presumptuousness that aggravates me to no end.

[XemaSab]

19. Say that you personally would NEVER have an abortion.

:P

[Political Heretic]

16. Because abortion is murder.

...now that I've got your attention. :)

You can poo poo, more make fun of, or trivialize people who sincerely believe this as much as you want, but if you ever stop to put yourself in their shoes, someone who sincerely believed that abortion was equivalent to murdering children would stop at nothing to end the slaughter.

Yes, yes - I'm aware that some politicians use rhetoric like that when they don't mean it, they prey on people's emotions about the issue and all that. But I know for a fact that there are ordinary people who sincerely believe abortion is killing a child. "If you don't want murder, then don't murder someone" just doesn't cut it for them.

(Lest there be any mistake, I am fervently pro-choice. But the opinions of those who disagree with me need to be "de-sensationalized" and de-mystified. We are smarter people and should come up with better explanations than "everyone who disagrees with us are just ignorant and stupid." There's a little more to it than that.)

[lisa58]

20. I understand exactly what you are saying, but...

...what I am saying is - you don't have to take the law off the books in order to stop abortions.

[ogneopasno]

25. Very well said.

The bumpersticker logic of "if you don't want one, don't have one" supposes that the reader thinks it's an OK thing. If you think they're immoral, you're going to want to convince other people not to have them, too, so blowing it off by saying "don't have one!" does nothing toward furthering the conversation.

[Oak2004]

18. Because the hate of abortion for most antiabortionists is not about life, but about being anti-sex

If they were pro-life, they'd be, at best, torn between the two candidates, since clearly McCain's agenda is not pro-life.

I am, like many disabled people, not all that fond of abortion. A fetus's disability is seen as one of the "noble" reasons to abort a child, which smacks of genocide if you happen to be one of the people being "nobly" disposed of. Granted, abortion is much more convenient than, say, equal rights, equal access, and the support we need to be full members of our community (inclusive of the right to grow up in a not-overstressed and near-bankrupt household). But it's still genocidal.

That said I know of very few people who think as I do who believe the solution is to ban abortion. It's clearly more to the point to change things so there is no social and economic penalty" for bearing a disabled child, and to improve awareness of the fact (demonstrated in study after study) that the quality of life of even the severely disabled is the same as those who are, momentarily, not one of us. After all, such changes would make it better for everyone, not just the potential abortee.

[XemaSab]

21. Word

n/t

[lisa58]

24. I have a disabled child - I didn't have an abortion - it's a choice...

...it's not a choice I would take away from another person.

[laconicsax]

30. It isn't about being anti-sex, it's about being anti-women.

[midnight]

That was the issue behind seatbelts. You didn't want to wear

one, you didn't. Now we have experts telling us why. I just wish they would focus on the safety of our food sources.

[Political Heretic]

23. What's sad about the abortion isssue is that over 80% of all abortions are had by women in poverty.

Source - the source on that stat for now is Professor Willian Rainford, legislative advocate for the Catholic Archdioceses and professor at my University, however its in a quantiative study somewhere if you demand that I dig it up.

We have a poverty problem. You want to dramatically reduce abortion more than it was even before Roe v. Wade? Address the economic and social access barriers to women.

[kath]

27. There used to be a great bumper sticker in circulation which said

Don't Like Abortion?
Don't Have One.


Time to bring it back.

(And one of the very best bumper stickers I ever saw said "Fundamentalism Stops a Working Mind".)