Abortion and right-wing hypocrisy
Excerpts from Joyce Arthur’s “The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion“…
“Many anti-choice women are convinced that their need for abortion is unique — not like those “other” women — even though they have abortions for the same sorts of reasons.”
Anecdotes:
“I’ve had several cases over the years in which the anti-abortion patient had rationalized in one way or another that her case was the only exception, but the one that really made an impression was the college senior who was the president of her campus Right-to-Life organization, meaning that she had worked very hard in that organization for several years. As I was completing her procedure, I asked what she planned to do about her high office in the RTL organization. Her response was a wide-eyed, ‘You’re not going to tell them, are you!?’ When assured that I was not, she breathed a sigh of relief, explaining how important that position was to her and how she wouldn’t want this to interfere with it.” (Physician, Texas)
“We too have seen our share of anti-choice women, ones the counselors usually grit their teeth over. Just last week a woman announced loudly enough for all to hear in the recovery room, that she thought abortion should be illegal. Amazingly, this was her second abortion within the last few months, having gotten pregnant again within a month of the first abortion. The nurse handled it by talking about all the carnage that went on before abortion was legalized and how fortunate she was to be receiving safe, professional care. However, this young woman continued to insist it was wrong and should be made illegal. Finally the nurse said, ‘Well, I guess we won’t be seeing you here again, not that you’re not welcome.’ Later on, another patient who had overheard this exchange thanked the nurse for her remarks.” (Clinic Administrator, Alberta)
“I had a patient about ten years ago who traveled up to New York City from South Carolina for an abortion. I asked her why she went such a long way to get the procedure. Her answer was that she was a member of a church group that didn’t believe in abortion and she didn’t want anyone to know she was having one. She planned to return to the group when she went back to South Carolina.” (Physician, New York)
“We have anti-choice women in for abortions all the time. Many of them are just naive and ignorant until they find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy. Many of them are not malicious. They just haven’t given it the proper amount of thought until it completely affects them. They can be judgmental about their friends, family, and other women. Then suddenly they become pregnant. Suddenly they see the truth. That it should only be their own choice. Unfortunately, many also think that somehow they are different than everyone else and they deserve to have an abortion, while no one else does.” (Physician, Washington State)
More here.
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[...] tip, Brad. [...]
Go here…
http://www.nrlc.org/
…and get the facts on abortion before you go defending the right to murder. The right to have an abortion is a selfish “right,” it is an act of pure violence. Read up on how an abortion is performed and see if you still support it.
An abortion is not the removal of a clump of tissue. It is the puncturing of an infant’s skull and sucking out the brains, it is burning the baby’s body with saline solution.
Don’t support the right of some whore to murder her own child just because it is politically expedient.
If you’re a true libertarian, you will oppose the government’s supported murder of an individual human being and admit that life begins at conception, not when we decide it is convenient.
It’s true that I’ve known some libertarians that are authentically “pro-life” — meaning that they not only oppose abortion, but they’re also anti-war and against the death penalty. They *honestly* believe both that a fetus is a person and that murder is wrong. The right to life doesn’t end at birth in their view.
I’ve also, much more often, encountered so-called “libertarian” pro-lifers who are actually just anti-abortion conservatives who might happen to have some somewhat libertarian positions on one or more issues (but haven’t actually embraced libertarianism as a philosophy).
The former have my respect, even if I personally find them unconvincing. The latter don’t because, as I point out above, they’re largely hypocrites (if not maniacs) — because that’s how I see all statists.
As an anarchist, I’m usually on decent terms with the former because they know I:
1) Support their right to freedom of speech to continue trying to peacefully make their case to individuals.
2) Support the rise of a future stateless society that could never force them to subsidize abortion through taxes, because there would be no such thing as taxes.
3) Support the rise of non-state voluntary legal networks based on contractual law — any one or more of which could “outlaw” abortion among its members who choose to subscribe to it (but nobody else). That assumes such networks always preserve the option of peacefully opting out of them — otherwise, we’re talking about a government. And since governments commit unjustifiable violence every day against people who have actually been born and for whom there is no debate on their personhood…
Ultimately, I was making a point in the post above about the attitudes and hypocrisy among statist pro-lifers. I could just as easily have made the same point if I was a “pro-life” anarchist. Truth is like that.
“Truth is like that.” True.
Consider your comment about “hypocrisy” and the killing of a fetus, AND the comment about governments commiting violence against people who have been born with regard to their “personhood.”
No one denying anyone their “personhood.”
The issue is innocent vs. guilty. Death penalty and war against terrorists kills criminals. Abortion kills innocent babies.
But, you would have to believe that the fetus is a real human being to follow all of that. That is a different discussion.