Yay, sanity! (Warning, politics)
Mar. 24th, 2006 11:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gement"There is tremendous sadness, loneliness in the cry, 'A woman's right to choose.' No one wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal, caught in a trap, wants to gnaw off its own leg." Frederica Mathewes-Green
The pro-life author of the above seems awfully surprised at how many pro-choicers have quoted her... It's the one really odd point about this really thoughtful pro-life article. She seems aware of the rhetorical limitations of a lot of pro-lifers, but then doesn't see that this quote addresses 90% of the usual arguments?
Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
agrumer, who pointed me to this article. I still don't agree with all of the writer's points or assumptions, but I think more people need to take this next step in the discussion: when we all acknowledge that no one is really happy about abortions, we can talk in more concrete terms about what to do about it instead of calling the women in this unfortunate position frivolous sluts.
I do not believe that the solutions she proposes could ever completely remove the existence of desperate situations. Birth control fails, rape happens, abuse happens, people continue to go through a young and stupid phase. Some situations are just not bearable, and I believe that the life experience of the sixteen or forty year old woman should never be considered secondary to the hypothetical life experience of the unborn. But I don't think anyone would be sad to see a much better support structure in place for pregnant women who really just want more help with their babies.
(For the record, I don't post a lot of this stuff, but I think about it a lot. If you want to see the sorts of things I'm thinking about, I suggest skimmingmoominmuppet or memegarden, who post a lot of interesting articles on what's going on with civil rights, women's rights and particularly women's reproductive rights.)
The pro-life author of the above seems awfully surprised at how many pro-choicers have quoted her... It's the one really odd point about this really thoughtful pro-life article. She seems aware of the rhetorical limitations of a lot of pro-lifers, but then doesn't see that this quote addresses 90% of the usual arguments?
Thanks to
agrumer, who pointed me to this article. I still don't agree with all of the writer's points or assumptions, but I think more people need to take this next step in the discussion: when we all acknowledge that no one is really happy about abortions, we can talk in more concrete terms about what to do about it instead of calling the women in this unfortunate position frivolous sluts.I do not believe that the solutions she proposes could ever completely remove the existence of desperate situations. Birth control fails, rape happens, abuse happens, people continue to go through a young and stupid phase. Some situations are just not bearable, and I believe that the life experience of the sixteen or forty year old woman should never be considered secondary to the hypothetical life experience of the unborn. But I don't think anyone would be sad to see a much better support structure in place for pregnant women who really just want more help with their babies.
(For the record, I don't post a lot of this stuff, but I think about it a lot. If you want to see the sorts of things I'm thinking about, I suggest skimming
moominmuppet or memegarden, who post a lot of interesting articles on what's going on with civil rights, women's rights and particularly women's reproductive rights.)
