Pro-Choice, Part 1

After a lot of time trying to get that pro-choice post together, I've decided to tackle it from a different angle. This will allow me to make sure I address everything, and I can work on and post it in chunks. It was turning out to be far too large of a project to do in one big piece, and it was starting to wear me down, so I'm afraid this is just going to have to do.

I doubt any of this is going to help much. I know full well that the most rabid anti-choicers--the ones who picket Planned Parenthood and support murdering abortionists, the ones crazy enough to try to declare a fertilized egg is a person--aren't going to be swayed by anything we have to say, no matter how fact-based it is. They're so set in the lies that there's no chance of changing their minds. But I'm doing this...I guess to try to lay the entire pro-choice argument out on the table in one place, in my own words, for anyone willing to take the time to read it. I'm also hoping that maybe, just maybe, this will reach someone, even just one person.

And to be honest, this project was very difficult to do. After everything I've seen I really, truly fear for the future of this country with people like those pro-lifers running around.

I will say right now that I will not tolerate anyone coming on here and calling me a baby-murderer, or asking me how I can live with myself, or anything of the sort. I've made it quite clear in other posts, but I'm going to say it again in case it's been skipped over: this is not a place for you to debate or question my beliefs or lifestyle choices, it's not your place to tell me I'm an evil, baby-hating murderer, it's not your place to tell me I'm wrong, or that I'll change my mind, it's not your place to come on here and berate or harass me, and any such comments will be deleted. I am not going to engage in a petty argument with anti-choicers who have nothing better to do with their time than troll child-free/pro-choice blogs.

If you're so damned worried about stopping abortion, then maybe you should be out there promoting safe sex, because no matter what you try to say or do, people are going to have sex. If they're better informed about protecting themselves, they're less likely to end up needing an abortion. If you care so much about those "babies" then get your asses out there and start helping the ones that are already here. The ones whose families are living in poverty, the ones whose mothers didn't want them but were pressured to have them, the ones who have special needs--they all need help a lot more than a clump of cells. Put your money where your mouth is, and then maybe we'll talk.

If you have genuine proof that any of my information is wrong, then please, feel free to share; I'm all for having correct information and I won't be insulted if I have to be corrected. But don't bring me "proof" from anti-choice websites. Don't bring me "proof" that's 20 years old. Don't bring me personal anecdotes, or religious "evidence" like, "oh well i regret my aborshun/i know some1 who regrets there aborshun/the bible says its rong so its rong u're evil."

Because you know what? On a lot of those anti-choice websites I read while trying to hunt down facts, their information was outdated. The websites themselves were obviously recent enough, certainly. But the information they had wasn't the most recent information available, and it isn't that hard to find if you just do a little bit of research. It's information that is available to the general public, from reputable sources. And while anecdotes are all well and good, those aren't hard facts. Neither is your bible. I'm also not going to sit here and argue religion with you, so you can take any religious bullshit elsewhere, too.

"What prompted this?" you may be asking. Honestly, a lot of things did. The ongoing struggle for an abortion clinic to open here in my city, the "personhood" amendment that (fortunately) got shot down in Mississippi, the ongoing struggle to keep our rights, and the amount of pure stupid I keep seeing from the so-called "pro-lifers" had a big hand in this. Granted, the whole thing in Mississippi is a more recent reason. But the thing that sparked this to begin with was an argument I had with my grandmother some time back. What she said has bothered me ever since, mainly because I used to think my grandmother was an intelligent woman.

How we got on the subject of abortion, I'm not even sure, though I have a feeling it had to do with Dr. Tiller's murder. For reasons that I can't even begin to fathom, she believes abortion is evil because it's killing a fully formed baby. She thinks that even at 3 months, it's a completely formed baby and that an abortion at that point--or any point--is the dismemberment and slow torture of that fully formed, but tiny baby. And you know, I was never very good in biology. I found the subject wholly boring and spent most of my high school biology class, and the health classes that talked about the development of a zygote/embryo/fetus, sketching or passing notes with my friends. Yet I still know that at the stage that most abortions are performed the embryo/fetus (because that's what it is) is not fully formed. It has no chance in hell of survival outside the womb.

So yes, my grandmother is the reason I even started this project. I think I may have sooner or later anyway, honestly, because the right to choose and the right to use contraception are important facets of the childfree lifestyle. But she prompted me to start it a lot sooner than I would have otherwise.

During my quest for facts, I ran across a disturbing trend: anti-choice sites masquerading as pro-choice, as showing both sides. They did show both sides, but they were heavily slanted towards "abortion is evil, don't do it." No truly pro-choice site would sound as though it was trying to strongly discourage abortion. I'm going to be creating a page (will be linked above, with the about and home links) dedicated to weeding out the pro-liar sites. We don't deserve to be lied to, and I'm going to do what little part I can to try to make sure it doesn't happen.

I'm going to end this post here and get started on the next post, where I'll really get started with the pro-choice stuff.