Fuck You, Pro-Lifers, I Have Lost Respect for You...

[freethemall]

You actually had any respect for pro-lifers to begin with? Because yeah, I definitely didn't.

[formergothardite]

I'm saying if a person is saying that if a woman's life isn't in danger she should not be allowed an abortion that person is not being pro-woman or pro-life of the woman(because an abortion won't always save a woman especially if it is complications from childbirth) or pro-quality of life when it comes to women. That person is being pro-fetus, not pro-life.

[lemonhead]

"Because being 'pro-life' is not about protecting life. It is about control."

Yes, this. It is all about control, wrapped up in religious justification. Authoritarianism at its finest.

[louisa05]

I know a priest who is actively anti-death penalty and has personally confronted many "pro-life" politicians in our state who support the death penalty. Two who are practicing Catholics. I got to watch one try to side step him as fast as he could because they had met before and the pol knew what was coming. This priest also constantly writes, calls and when the opportunity presents itself gets in their faces about keeping a strong safety net because so many choose abortion because they know they cannot financially support a child (or in many cases another). He made some people very uncomfortable at the Catholic school I taught at by emphasizing that it is not pro-life or Christian to let families be hungry and homeless and call that "advocating personal responsibility". I respect him more than any other priest I have ever known. We got him to come from 100+ miles away to officiate our wedding.

These people exist. But they are so few and far between. And so many of the anti-abortion crowd are shallowly parroting something someone told them. Most of the ones I know don't want to think about real policy issues that would reduce abortion and make mothers and children more secure. That is too complicated. And they don't want to think about the death penalty at all. I asked one once if that is because babies are cute and death row inmates are not. She got really pissed, and, notably I think, refused to answer me. Unfortunately, I think that is the bottom line for so many of them. They get emotionally invested in the idea of "saving" babies. It is a lot harder to become emotionally invested in saving convicted murderers. You have to become logically invested in that. Timothy McVeigh did not inspire sympathy. Those kids in Oklahoma do not inspire sympathy.

[formergothardite]

I think a lot of it is focusing on the "cute baby". They don't want to think about what happens to the cute baby after it is born. They don't want to think about the impact forced pregnancy has on women. Just think about a cute baby and ignore all the other stuff.

The anti-choicers I know say the death penalty is okay because those "bad" people, while abortion is wrong because a fetus is innocent. Also, many of them, when it gets down to it, just want to punish the woman for having sex. You have sex so you have to suffer.

[FearLyss]

I think the term "pro-life" is what causes these issues, because it suggests that pro-choicers are anti-life, which we all know is completely ridiculous. I have had conversations with two different people who considered themselves to be pro-life, when I would actually say that they are pro-choice. Both said that they are pro-life because it was a choice they were against for themselves, but did not want to see it made illegal. One went further and said she felt that pro-choicer's would have an abortion. When I told her I doubt that I would in the case of an unwanted pregnancy, I think I blew her mind.

My mother was always "pro-life" while I was growing up. When my sister got pregnant at 17, my mother suddenly had more empathy for women in that situation. She told my sister to make the choice best for her. My sister had already made the choice to keep the baby, hence why she told my mother (I had know for 2 months and told her I was there for her regardless and would help whichever way she needed). She kept the baby, and now my mother is back on her pro-life band wagon and my niece is her little testimony against abortion. When she posts something on facebook about it, I fight every urge to let all of her little friends know that she would have been OK with my sister choosing to have one. That she felt my sister should have a choice, but does not feel other women should. My mother is pro-choice, when it effects her life. Pro-life when she wants to look righteous.

[bucherwurm]

Totally agree with the thread.

My husbands family is "pro-life" (anti-abortion). Generally everything they say about the subject upsets me so I don't talk about it.

It is also really hard to take a "pro-lifer" seriously when they have said that when their child is 6 months old they get handed off to a buddy. They don't want abortions, but also think birth control is bad. Something doesn't add up there.

[Anxious Girl]

My point is that pro-LIFE is different - it should mean more than being anti-abortion or anti-choice, it should include not killing people or letting them die bc they are too poor to afford healthcare or food. Etc. Since so many anti-choicers are not at all pro-life (guns guns guns and pro-death penalty, for example) I bristle when they use the term "pro-life". It's a lie.

I disagree. Pro-LIFE is also about denying women the choice to abort. That's why I call pro-lifers anti-choicers. If you are pro-choice, you support a woman's decision no matter what. If you're Pro-LIFE, you're willing to deny a woman an abortion based on what you think is moral without any concerns for her.

[rward]

There have been times where he and a fellow priest went to pray near a clinic - NOT in front, NOT on the same block, NOT harassing or even speaking to anyone going in or out - just standing literally across the street, minding their own business and praying. They always get obscenities shouted at them, and occasionally fast food bags and glass bottles thrown at them.

emphasis mine

He was not standing there, minding his own business. He was making a spectacle of his prayer, which Jesus specifically forbid. He wasn't just praying, he went to that specific place to make a statement, even if he never opened his mouth. Sorry, but he wasn't some innocent bystander who just happened to find himself praying in front of a woman's clinic. I'm not saying it's okay to throw things at people, but your characterization of his actions is disingenuous at best.

[formergothardite]

Yeah, there was no reason to go stand there and pray unless you are trying to make a statement.

[J'ean Skirt]

In a previous life I did research at a hospital.

There were a couple weeks where to get from the hospital to the train station, I had to run a gauntlet of anti-choice folks. It Was Awful. All I wanted to do was get home from my 9 hours of standing on my feet, running around the lab and trying to make people's lives better. I go outside to get lies shouted at me, graphic images shoved in my face and people blocking my way home.

Any respect I may have had for some pro-lifers (my mom is one who is all about The Babies!!) was lost at the moment where I couldn't go to and from work without being harassed. I was doing immunology and tissue transplant rejection research. Our lab was in the basement of a hospital. It was so stressful and horrible and EVIL running that gauntlet.

A few months later another group of protesters was out. They weren't doing anything more than standing out of the way and praying. They generated the same feelings of stress and judgement. "just standing there" when that is a place protesters are is not some "minding your own business" thing. It is a deliberately hostile act that is designed to give the actors "cover" and "defense" because "they're just minding their own business."

If they were minding their own business, they were doing it badly.

(not saying throwing things was appropriate, but I can so sympathize. I still react viscerally and want to hit things when I think about trying to get home)

[danvillebelle]

never mind

[JesusFightClub]

emphasis mine

He was not standing there, minding his own business. He was making a spectacle of his prayer, which Jesus specifically forbid. He wasn't just praying, he went to that specific place to make a statement, even if he never opened his mouth. Sorry, but he wasn't some innocent bystander who just happened to find himself praying in front of a woman's clinic. I'm not saying it's okay to throw things at people, but your characterization of his actions is disingenuous at best.

Yes, exactly this.

Do anti-abortion people think that their God only works within a specific distance of an abortion clinic? If not, why insinuate yourself as near as you can, instead of praying at home?

Face facts. You are political protesters.

[danvillebelle]

never mind

[Anxious Girl]

I apologize if anything I said offended anyone or brought up painful memories (to the person who was harassed going to and from work, I am sorry, that's awful).

I probably shouldn't have responded at all. I just know a few people who consider themselves pro-life and they are not gun-toting, pro-death penalty, harassing fetus-picture shoving assholes. They're against the death penalty, anti-war, for good healthcare for all, care deeply for people living in poverty and try to walk their talk.

Peace.

Well, it sounded like you were defending a priest who would deny a woman the right to abortion, which was assholish. I don't care if they support women who go through pregnancy, they should support women no matter what kinds of choices the make without pressuring them to go through pregnancies if they don't want to. So the priest is and was an anti-choice asshole. I don't give a fuck about pro-lifer's fee-fee's and if they're not all "like that." They are still trying to deny/denying abortions for women who want them. A person who wants to deny somebody a choice to make with their body based on their "morals and opnions" is an asshole, no matter how nice they fucking come off as to support with her pregnancy, but would guilt pressure her from her orginal choice to get an abortion. Deal with it.

[AtroposHeart]

Ha, you know clinic escorts are volunteers at abortion/PP clinics are people that I have a lot respect for. The help the women get the medical care they need and protect them from fundies.

I don't live near a clinic, but if I did I would consider becoming an escort. I watched their videos of the pro-life protesters including one strangely hilarious one where this man was saying their was no poverty in the U.S and how people in Nepal NEVER got abortions. He recommended that poor people just dumpster dive. He also went on a creationist rant too. It was oddly amusing to see so much fundie in one video

[Becket70]

As sympathetic as I am to the Democratic Party, they dropped the ball on this issue years ago. They were complacent, scared and inept. As soon as the Republicans came out with their emotionally charged, non-medical term Partial Birth Abortion (which is really a late term abortion) and nothing but crickets from the Democrats, I knew we were in trouble. I understand the emotions involved with these procedures but emotions don't trump facts (well, they do sometimes....the little girl who got the lung transplant after being placed on the adult list comes to mind) but enacting laws based on emotion is not good governance. I rarely, if ever, hear Democrats talking about what life was like before Roe v Wade. They never talk about the fact that abortion will be driven underground if made illegal. They never talk about the very real possibility that women will be considered felons and put in prison for years when abortion is made illegal. There is so much they could have done but they did very little. Maybe I'm being too hard on them but I remember the days before Roe...I was a teenager back then. I volunteered at our local hospital back then and saw a lady die after being admitted following a botched back-alley abortion. I have never forgotten her. Her death was needless.

[laura oz]

I don't think anyone is afraid of the term here. The term pro-life signifies caring about life. Caring about a woman's life is pro-life to me. Pro-life label is a false label that sounds like those against it don't care about life, when that's far from the truth. In the majority of cases, those who call themselves pro-life don't care about life at all. They care about a fetus. They are anti-choice for women and their bodily autonomy. Pro-choice for abortion is pro-life for women because they're alive right now and they have the right to their own bodies and the right to live.

Very well said.

[brigid]

Pro-lifers here, don't try and convince me how loving, kind and nice you are. To me, you deserve no respect and are sick fucks. I am literally shaking with anger right now. Please go fuck yourselves with rusty legos. :angry-banghead: :angry-cussingblack: :angry-cussing: :angry-fire: :angry-screaming: :angry-fire: :angry-fire: :angry-fire: :angry-fire: :angry-fire: :angry-fire:

And be sure to step on it when you're through.

[walnut]

What's there to respect about sanctimonious a-holes that will dip their noses into other people's business to the point where they want to order them to eff up their lives and live miserably with a burden that they never wanted to, wanting to force women to carry their child to term because, apparently the so called life of a zygote is more valuable to them than that of a living, breathing person

AND they don't give a f*** about the babies that are born, they mock their mothers for most of these babies are born to young woman, god forsake girls, definitely out of wedlock

AND they would never help these mothers raise up their children.

As soon as out of the womb - who cares, except when it's come to judging the babymama. Throughout their lives.

Pro lifers are seldom willing to adopt, and when they adopt children, well, let's just say I have seen adoptive mothers from these circles and I shrugged reading their blogs.

They just keep pushing out their own biological children instead of adopting the same amount of abandoned children and providing for them

So all of them can lick my red ass! And I never ever thought otherwise!

[walnut]

Full of riffles. I'm not going back, as I understand it's not about the grammar but the message. Sorry, I'm a little upset to type. Correctly.

[duplessis3]

Frankly, I think any person in a religion where only men can be figures of power isn't pro-woman. That patriarchal system denies women a huge range of choices.

[theologygeek]

Pro-lifers here, don't try and convince me how loving, kind and nice you are. To me, you deserve no respect and are sick fucks.

Wtf? One of my best friends is pro life. She's a non practicing Jew and a Democrat. She simply believes that life starts at conception and does not judge anyone who has had an abortion. How old are you? You sound like a kid.

[theologygeek]

I disagree. Pro-LIFE is also about denying women the choice to abort. That's why I call pro-lifers anti-choicers.

[OkToBeTakei]

Wtf? One of my best friends is pro life. She's a non practicing Jew and a Democrat. She simply believes that life starts at conception and does not judge anyone who has had an abortion. How old are you? You sound like a kid.

Bit of a pet hate of mine. Black or white. No grey allowed. Like you I have friends who are respectful of other's choices whilst not subscribing to that belief themselves. I suppose I should just call them sick fucks and be done. So strange it is only right to do what you want with your own body when it fits an agenda. If that agenda is pro-life and is your own informed decision..well you know that is pro-choice also.