The anti-abortion movement is about controlling poor people

[bluestateguy]

I do not take issue with the argument that many anti-abortionists want to control women and their lives, but I don't think that's the only motivation. I think there is more to it.

Deprive poor people of sex ed in the school (real sex ed, not abstinence only nonsense), deprive young women of birth control devices, and make abortion illegal. Now suddenly the poor are burdened with children they cannot afford, increasing the likelihood that they will stay poor.

Poor people are easier for governments to control.

Rich folks--Stepford Wives, Daddy's Little Sorority Princess, the Rich Republican CEO's mistress, etc.--can just hop a plane to another country and have the procedure done quietly, safely and legally if an unwanted pregnancy were to occur.

[secondwind]

1. I've been saying this for over 20 years. And don't forget that the poor die

in disproportionate numbers, while the rich girls fly off to Canada, Mexico or Europe for a safe abortion.

THAT is the unfairness that will occur if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Because everyone knows that abortion is something that has, and always will, occur.

[DURHAM D]

2. No. It is about controlling all uteri. nt

[secondwind]

4. yes and no. the rich girls have other options, poor girls don't.

[DURHAM D]

17. I think the idea is to control all women.

However, there is no question that middle and lower income women/families will be the most affected.

[HeresyLives]

3. The government doesn't want any

MORE poor people. They'd likely sterilize them all if they thought they could get away with it.

[BuelahWitch]

12. Disagree

The more poor, uneducated people, the lower they can drive down wages.

[DURHAM D]

19. Yep - and in its place we will no longer have that easy credit.

Up until now the workers have been anesthetized with credit in place of wage increases.

And, most never noticed the difference.

Everyone take to the streets.

[opihimoimoi]

5. Women should have a CHOICE...This IS a FREE COUNTRY>>>?

and denying them means more babies in our already over crowed Earth...

Are we NUTS?

[EFerrari]

6. Are most poor people women and their dependent children?

[supernova]

7. It's also racist... more cute little white babies

for the aryan nation

Women of color should just go get a job and get sterilized. And oh by the way, women of color are disproportionately poor too.

[bluestateguy]

8. I know some people who have said just that

One girl I went on a date with 10 years ago said that we should sterilize black and Mexican welfare mothers.

Needless to say, there was no second date.

[Indydem]

10. Your argument is flawed...

If the anti-abortion crowd is practicing some sort of eugenics or racism/classism, why wouldn't they support abortion? Why wouldn't they encourage abortion more and start putting up abortion clinics on their own dime in black and hispanic neighborhoods?

I've always found that its easier to accept that they have real and legitimate desires to protect an innocent life and leave it at that.

We can fight over the right to choice and whether a fetus is alive, but cooking up conspiracies as to why they are anti-choice just muddies the water.

[Dramarama]

14. I have to agree

[omega minimo]

16. If you agree "cooking up conspiracies as to why they are anti-choice just muddies the water"

it sounds like you aren't very informed about the issue.

[Dramarama]

30. I dont think disagreements

makes one person very uninformed.

[omega minimo]

31. Are you informed?

"easier to think" the anti choicers have "good reasons" and those who question their motives and object to their tactics, up to and including domestic terrorism, murder and despicable harassment of women at health clinics are "cooking up conspiracies"?

Perhaps you're informed enough to agree with that poster and not think it through. Or?

[omega minimo]

15. It sounds like you're blind to sexism and racism

Is it just "coincidence" that so many people of color are still socioeconomically disadvantaged and segregated?

Is it just "coincidence" that they only gender that has the power to create life is not respected but subjugated to the opinion of others and if allowed, the will of others to control the person's own BODY!!

Not that long ago, both African Americans and women were the property of white men.

The OP is right. Socioeconomic control of subgroup is a powerful thing. However, the anti-choicers are about controlling women's lives, bodies and power.

[Indydem]

21. Whoa, I'm not trying to start a big fight...

I just think it's far fetched to go down the road you are traveling.

First, more whites get abortions than all other races combined, in some years since Roe its been by a very large margin. The segregation of races and classes seems to be irrelevent to the statistics. My argument was specifically against the comment I responded to, which was that it was a quest to keep more white babies alive.

And for the record, women are only half of the "create life" equation. I find it offensive that somehow the mans contribution, however insignificant it is in your mind, is always left out. Only a woman can grow and nurture a life, but it cannot be created without two human beings acting in some manner.

And finally, do you really believe that half of the country really wants to control women? That they are all shaking their fists in the air and saying "get back in the kitchen and make a baby woman!"? The people who truly fight against choice are mostly religious extremists, people who believe (rightly or wrongly, not for this discussion) that abortion kills an innocent life. People in this country are too lazy to fight for the control on anything, let alone waste their precious time and energy fighting to control another human being this day in age. They fight with the fervor and tenacity of those who truly believe in something more, and I just find it unbelievable that they would waste so much of their time over the "enslavement" of those who want to have an abortion.

Maybe that makes me naive, but I just can't see all those people standing in the rain with pictures of aborted fetuses going to all that trouble so that poor people stay poor. Doesn't make sense....

[omega minimo]

27. You've already decided you're right, didn't respond to anything in my post except in praise of sperm

[supernova]

22. It's not a conspiracy

just the logical conclusion about where the thuggish forced-birther thinking leads.

If the anti-abortion crowd is practicing some sort of eugenics or racism/classism, why wouldn't they support abortion? Why wouldn't they encourage abortion more and start putting up abortion clinics on their own dime in black and hispanic neighborhoods?


Because a woman in control of her own fertility is a woman in control of her own economic destiny. She is no longer is a slave to biology. And that's exactly what the forced-birthers (I refuse to call them "right to life," there is nothing life-giving about their stance).

You're right in that forced-birthers *ought* to be for free birth control on every corner. The fact that they aren't, is quite telling.

[sendero]

9. My personal opinion..

.... is that for many it is simply about sex. Many just believe that sex is for babies and if you have sex your "punishment" is a baby.

OTOH, the only person I've known well who was anti-abortion was mad because his gf did not want to have his baby and had an abortion. It took all the will power I could muster to not tell him that no woman want to have the child of someone they know won't be around to help raise it or hold a job to do so.

[ejpoeta]

23. for some men, it is about that very thing. think about it... the egg is always there

and it's the men who impregnate a woman. For how long has it been just something women had to bear. I mean, how long ago was it legal for a man to rape his wife!! Men could control it. When women began being able to control whether they had babies or not, then they started going to work and being more independent. Some men don't like that. I always think of that movie with Toby McGuire where it is all in black and white. Pleasantville. Where the women were home making dinner and the men went off to work. And the men couldn't handle the idea that dinner wasn't ready for them when they got home. It was just a movie, but still...

Yes, sex is just supposed to be to make babies. and a baby is your punishment. The idea of a baby as a punishment!! Just makes me sick. What a life for a kid...

[omega minimo]

11. No, it's about controlling women's bodies and lives, including socioeconomic status. Which covers

your concern about poor "people" -- being women without equal rights, equal opportunities and equal sovereignty over their lives and bodies.

Yes, It's about keeping wimmins in their place by controlling their socioeconomic circumstances.

[Mojambo]

13. They don't want people having sex for fun.

This is about making sex ONLY about procreation because that's what Jesus wants.

They're against abortion, birth control, sex ed... EVERYTHING that might make it easier for people to fuck just because it feels goddamn good.

[Just Saying]

18. Certainly the poor have fewer options.

Being poor makes most things more difficult, but keeping a baby for whom you didn't plan is a particularly tough situation. Plus, the poor have less access to reproductive education and contraception and are less likely to have healthcare coverage. (Particularly the working poor - too poor to afford coverage, but too rich for medicaide.)

Considering that so much of the anti-choicers are also anti-contraception, I think they are mostly religious fanatics (which brings with it an element of sexism) and the rest just plain ignorant. Who but the ignorant would protest women aborting wanted babies that are deformed, dead or dying?

[ejpoeta]

24. At least in NY... when I applied for medicaid many years ago.... i was told

that even if I didn't qualify for medicaid, they could still help me get birth control pills.

[Indydem]

25. Single-Payer health care solves that. England doesn't even require a prescription n/t

[ejpoeta]

20. that's true. poor folks with little education have many kids. mouths to feed.

and folks with kids to feed keep their heads down and their mouths shut. they need to work to feed all them kids. makes perfect sense to me.

[bullwinkle428]

26. Because lots of poor men give birth?

[omega minimo]

28. Well it's about controlling poor sperm

:eyes:

[Gwendolyn]

29. I think I disagree with your OP.

Keeping people impoverished and with too many mouths to feed has traditionally been in the realm of the Church's agenda. It isn't in the interest of governments to create zillions of unwanted children that will have to be taken care of by the State. If you look around the world, the only countries that don't allow abortions are those that still have a strong religious/political influence. Ireland, Poland, and ahem, potentially if we aren't vigilant, the United States. And of course, all the outright theocracies like Saudi Arabia, etc. Secular countries all allow abortion, unfettered.

The poor often do it to themselves. This story broke my heart.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070507_the_greatest_threat_to_choice/