when anti-choice women seek abortions

[firecat]

This is a really fascinating and sad article. (Via ailbhe and supergee) Sad because I don't like reading about people who strive to stay ignorant of their similarities with other people, and because it makes me uncomfortable that in many cases people believe the only option for fulfilling their social needs is to live a lie. (Um, didn't phrase that as well as I would have liked.)

http://mypage.direct.ca/w/writer/anti-tales.html

Comments

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have that one bookmarked too, and regularly pull it out in abortion discussions. I don't think of it as "living a lie" as much as I do "double standard". All those other women who want abortions are shameless sluts, but HER case is SPECIAL.

There was a similar situation in a news article I read some years back (dead-tree, so I don't have a link): during the RU-486 battle, one of the women in the test group at some college or other was active in her school's "pro-life" group, and planned to CONTINUE being active in it after taking part in the test. She was quoted as saying that she was genuinely pro-life, but she was afraid she was pregnant, and having a baby at this point would mess up all her future plans. Can you believe the barefaced hypocrisy?

I wrote a letter to the editor about that one, pointing out how fortunate she was that her side of the argument was currently losing the fight! Of course, it never saw the light of day.

[firecat]

The part about living a lie referred to the women who really didn't want it to come out that they were having abortions because they really wanted to continue being active in their pro-life social groups.

The double standards are also rampant.

[pure-agnostic.livejournal.com]

I wonder if what is really going on is that the "pro-life" side of the debate has metastasized into an "anti-abortion" culture. A culture where one's personal views don't matter so much as the willingness of each person to participate in the culture.

[eve-l-incarnata.livejournal.com]

Was the "pro-life" side ever actually pro life? I've always understood that the support for women who decide not to abort evaporates not long after the baby is out of the cutesie goo goo stage.

Also, I think opinions on the death penalty vary wildly among anti-choice people.

[leback.livejournal.com]

Fascinating indeed. Thank you for the reference.

[dancing-star.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing the link. It sometimes amazes me how people rationalize what they want to do, while telling other people it's wrong.

Blessings

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Sooner or later, people like that are simply going to have to be outed. I'm not comfortable with that thought because of considerations of medical confidentiality, but I don't see any way around it.

[eve-l-incarnata.livejournal.com]

Wow. Thanks for posting that. It never dawned on me that there could be high level of hypocrisy among the anti-choice ranks.

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the same "personal beliefs" notion that anti-choice pharmacists are trotting out could be used by doctors in these circumstances?

Not that I want to see the conversation go that way, but sauce for the goose....

[firecat]

I think doctors generally practice in alignment with their beliefs, which is part of the reason it's harder to get abortions in states that are significantly anti-.