Toxic Meme Alert: Lies of the "Pro-Life" Movement

Now that Stupak-Pitts has exposed the machinations of the "pro-life" movement in the most obvious and unflattering manner, I've been thinking a lot about the different ways in which their movement lies, not just to pro-choicers, but to their own faithful believers. Here are some things I've come up with: as always, feel free to add your own in comments. Here we go!

Lie #1: We are pro-life.

Yup, that's a big fucking lie right there. Are they anti-war? No. Are they anti-death penalty? Hey-ell no. Thus, they are not pro-life in any meaningful sense of the word. What they are is anti-choice. But remember they're not anti-THEIR choice; they're anti-YOUR choice, wimminz. They think you are evil because of some ridiculous story about a snake and an apple tree.  For an illustration of this insanity, see the fact that until very recently, the RNC's Cigna health plan covered elective abortions...until their rabid anti-choice base found out and put a stop to it. Sort of.

Lie #2: Only irresponsible women get abortions, with the corollary - only pro-choice women get abortions.

 This is a really big one, and it's taken hold throughout the community of women. This propaganda is to cover the fact that one out of three women will have an abortion in her lifetime. That equates to tens of millions of women. The idea that tens of millions of women, your friends, neighbors, relatives and co-workers are murderers because they decided to terminate their pregnancies, would be a huge reality check for anti-choicers. So, they propagate the meme that it's just "other" women that do it, not 33% of the female population in America.

The truth is that when a woman has become pregnant without planning to do so, whether or not she terminates that pregnancy has a whole lot to do with her situation in life. Is she in a stable relationship? Is she a teenager? Was the sex consensual, or was it rape or incest? Does she have the financial resources to raise the child? Is she too old or young to bear the child safely?

In short, the decision whether or not to bear a child is just like any important decision people have to make; people who are reasonable and rational and have actual lives. I know this is not the narrative that we are supposed to be brainwashed into believing, but it's reality. Women are people too!

Lie #3: Life begins at conception.

No, it doesn't. Potential life begins at conception. No one really knows whether a blastocyst will become a healthy baby with a chance at growing up into an adult, until after it is born (and sometimes, not even then). Thus, termination of a pregnancy is not murder at all. Never has been, never will be.

Lie #4: We can "all agree" that abortion reduction is a good thing.

This is actually not just a "pro-life" movement lie, but a lie that Obama and the Democrats use as well, to "tamp down the anger" and make it seem like there is some common ground with the pro- and anti-choicers. But in itself, is abortion reduction a good thing? No, it's not...not if unwanted pregnancies increase because of policies that have made it impossible for women to gain access to sex education and contraception. If we're going to "all agree" on something, how about agreeing that unwanted pregnancy reduction is our common goal? Ah, but then you know who wouldn't agree? Anti-choicers. So what that meme is really about is trying to make pro-choicers submit to the insanity of the anti-choice movement, just as Stupak and its "liberal" apologists are doing.

Lie #5: Feminism is about "abortion rights."

I really hate to say I told you so, but...I told you so. Pro-choicers, even brilliant ones, have allowed the anti-choicers to dictate the terms of the debate by using the words "abortion rights." I do not want the right to an abortion that, because of situational reasons, I most likely will never have. I want the right to control my own body, just the same rights that men have, and use, without anyone questioning them.

For example, if a man doesn't want to get a woman pregnant, he can go get a condom. Because he is a man, he can choose buy a condom in any drugstore he wants to, without any pharmacist's tender "conscience" being offended by his scary man-part. What on earth is the difference between a man buying a condom, and a woman using birth control? Absolutely none, except that the fundies hate the idea that women would ever be able to control their own reproductive destiny, so they pretend their "consciences" are offended by birth control pills. It's simply ludicrous.

That's what "my body, my choice" means. I get to decide whether or not to have a baby, just like a man does. It's not "my body, my abortion," for Jeebus' sake!

That's all I've got for now...what's on your mind?

This is an open thread.