Abortion Watch Thread

[GDKitty]

Thanks, skdadl
It's a tough to do justice to this topic in one post. I'm looking forward to checking-in on other sites and I'm sure I'll learn a lot today!

[fern hill]

Here's mine.

[skdadl]

Well done, fern hill. Cathcart is so clear, isn't he? We have to keep talking until the issue is defused, no longer a four-letter word, no longer a melodrama. We're watching a lot of melodrama creep, and the only way to stop it is to speak up on clear principle.

[Mandos]

skdadl:

All suggestions welcome. Apart from swearing, which sometimes seems justified to me, I feel overwhelmed sometimes by the sentimentality of the opposition.

A post from a blogfriend:

Listen: 30 years ago I took the pro-choice side in a high school debate on abortion. I gave a good solid presentation, listing all the reasons why it was right and necessary for women to have the right to an abortion: because it’s a matter of fundamental bodily integrity, because the decision to bear a child belongs solely to the person doing the bearing, because women will seek abortions no matter what and if they’re illegal then thousands of women will suffer or die from back-alley hack jobs, etc., etc. When I sat down, I was genuinely curious to see how my debate opponent would answer my arguments.

She didn’t even try. She didn’t address a single point, didn’t discuss a single question of law or rights or statistics. Instead, she pulled out a piece of paper and started reading: “Mommy, I’m 8 inches long and I have all my organs! I love the sound of your voice…” It was the Talking Fetus pamphlet! Yes, that thing. It was making the rounds 30 years ago and it’s still out there today. It’s like the Christmas fruitcake that won’t die.

Anyway, my debate opponent read this thing with a trembling voice, her eyes welling with tears as the wee diary-keeping embryo drew ever closer to its destiny with Jesus. By the end she and the whole class were sobbing — snot dripping out, the whole bit. I leaned my head against the wall and wished our teacher would schedule a lesson on propaganda.

http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/?p=527

I'd venture to add there are people---perhaps most people---whose moral organs are best aroused by sentimentality and sympathy, and sympathy with sentimentality and who are closed to clarity and precision, which are words with a cold feeling.

I have myself come to the conclusion that whatever in the abstract one may think about the medical procedure, could I tell someone who didn't want to go through with a pregnancy that they would have to endure the whole nine yards?  My own sentimentality says, probably not.

[skdadl]

Mandos, if you'd ever known a woman who, as a teenager, gave up a child for adoption, after being shamed horribly by the moralizers and all their minions, you'd find that "probably not" a lot easier to say.

Thank you for the great link, and this wonderful laugh:

It’s like the Christmas fruitcake that won’t die.

 :

[Debra]

I had a hell of time writing this.

I just couldn't get words to come.

This is the 13th attempt at trying to make sense.

Still want to erase but enough is enough.

http://aprilreign.breadnroses.ca/blog/wordpress/?p=115

[skdadl]

I'm on it like a bonnet, Debra (as Audra used to say).

I'm tongue-tied too. Y'know why, I think? Because our heads are so filled at the moment with all the counter-arguments. We know what people are going to say back to us before we even speak, which is a terrible cause of silence.

That happens to depressed people too.

[fern hill]

It's good, Debra. Simple, direct.

[GDKitty]

I just went for coffee & now I'm checking in on the Choice-day posts.
Great jobs, both, fern hill & Debra!  :D
It's really tough, isn't it?

I'm tongue-tied too. Y'know why, I think? Because our heads are so filled at the moment with all the counter-arguments. We know what people are going to say back to us before we even speak, which is a terrible cause of silence.

Bingo, skdadl. That's exactly how I felt, too.

I'll make a point of checking ProgBlogs today, too, just to make sure every vote...er...counts

[Debra]

I got the first abortion as man trap comment nyah nyah.  :roll:

[skdadl]

"Read Bentham."   :roll:  :roll:  :roll:

What can you say? FO, you pretentious little twerp? Get a life?

[fern hill]

Hey, thanks, Debra, for the linky. Now, I'm in their line of fire too.  :wink:

[Debra]

knew you'd appreciate it.  :lol:

ETA and be sure to Read Bentham

[skdadl]

It will be several lives from now when I waste time reading Jeremy Bentham, ta very much.

[Debra]

:  Dr. Dawg had a good rebuttal for him.