Maybe this will sound insensitive, but looking at pictures of fetuses don't move me or make me go "AWW." I think those people holding up the posters make fetuses look like disgusting little monsters and I, for one, do not want a little monster inside me. (And yeah, I include ultrasounds in these pics.) Clearly I have no maternal instincts. But that's my right.
@Experiment626: You don't sound insensitive at all. I've always felt the same way. Heck, I have a baby and am trying for another and fetuses do nothing for me either! #theviewabortion
I know a close family member who had an abortion and the only thing difficult about the decision was trying to find somewhere to have it since it was still illegal at the time. Elizabeth, pull your head out of your ass, women will have abortions whether you like it or not. If you want to make it illegal, abortions will still happen and more unwanted children will be born. It will be perfect! #theviewabortion
I would like to propose a law requiring every anti-choice protester to adopt a child born to a woman intimidated away from PP or the like. Since they love babies so much, they shouldn't have a problem accepting some squalling infants into their own homes. #theviewabortion
@PhillyLass: Yes, yes, yes. I have so much less disdain for anti-choicers who are pro-comprehensive sex ed, pro-birth control, and who advocate for the government services that help the women, children, and families that not aborting creates.
I might have something resembling actual respect for those who do all of the above and have adopted babies who were carried to term instead of being aborted. #theviewabortion
@PhillyLass: Did you read the article a while back about Crisis Pregnancy Centers that do just that? There's a huge demand for adoptable newborns and many CPCs are connected to adoption agencies that are over-eager to place take women's babies and place them in "more deserving" homes. #theviewabortion
I wasn't sorry then, and - if this is even possible - I am even less sorry now. I am, in fact, so incredibly relieved that I made the decision to end my pregnancy. At the time, there really was a question: I could have married Him, I could have had His Baby.
After the abortion, for unrelated reasons, my partner became obsessively jealous. He became emotionally and then physically abusive. He dumped me before I had the chance to dump him, and - good riddance - took off to live in another country. He is now married to a sex worker he met in that country in a decidedly non-egalitarian relationship.
I could have been Her. Instead, I am now Me, getting a degree next year and moving on to medical school after that. After medical school, I have no doubt, I will be providing women with medical care and unbiased, friendly advice if they solicit it.
I have to just say, Tracie: that you manage to say so much in so few words constantly amazes me, as does your ability to pick through the barren trash heap of half-baked ideas that litter daytime TV and come up with both witticisms and intelligent critique. In other words, you kick serious ass. #theviewabortion
I hate how Elisabeth is saying it will make the choice "easier", by which she means it will be easier to choose not to have the abortion. Not making women look at the picture would make it 'easier' to choose an abortion. Not having all this red tape, restricted access to clinics, protestors outside, etc would make it easier for women to consider all their options and make a choice either way. Clearly she isn't in favour of making women more at ease here, she is in favour of manipulating the situation so that women are compelled to keep the pregnancy. #theviewabortion
I have never had an abortion, but in one year of my life three women to whom I was very close did. The two who were able to tell their parents about it and who had that support got through it just fine, and twenty years on neither has ever suggested to me that it really haunts them now. The third could not tell her parents and ended up very messed up by the experience. This suggests to me that it is the shame imposed by others, not the act itself, that makes abortion hardest. #theviewabortion
It bums me out that whenever a pro-choicer is countering a pro-life argument that it needs to get back to rape and incest for examples of when abortions are okay.
It makes it appear that abortion is only a choice under the most extreme circumstances, and while it is the easiest argument to make, and understand -- abortion is actually a very common ocurence and a needed choice among all women in any situation whatever it maybe. #theviewabortion
I like the point that the woman sitting next to Elisabeth Hasselbeck made (I don't know who she is, sorry - never seen this show). It can just 'hit you', a year or 10 years or 20 years later. Even though I personally believe that commonsense and morality is on the side of the pro-choice movement, never be so arrogant to believe that you know how you'll feel about that choice in years to come, maybe after you've had other children. It's a good point and one that maybe people don't think about enough. It's not a reason not to have an abortion if you feel that it's necessary - but its worth a thought. Shame she was shouted down in this clip. #theviewabortion
@chinaplate: and maybe you would wish you hadn't had the child after you gave birth? I mean, we can only make decisions with the information we have today. No need to remind women that this is a big decision which could affect our life either way- WE KNOW. #theviewabortion
@chinaplate: It gets shouted down because the anti-choice movement uses it as another excuse to prohibit abortions. Yes, Sherri's right: you can/i regret your abortion. Just like you can regret any of the thousands of other decisions you make over the course of your lifetime, and I doubt many would suggest outlawing any of those options in order to make decisions easier.#theviewabortion
I used the counter-protest for NOW in front of a Planned Parenthood in Boston. While all of the anti-abortionists were putting up ugly gross pictures of dead puppies or whatever they use to illustrate their pointlessness, my colleagues and I were busy planting ourselves in front of the pictures. I stood in front of one of the nastiest signs I've ever seen, held by a little old lady who kept moving it. I thought of it like a dance party: "To the left, to the right..." #theviewabortion
I've posted a long-ish rant below, but just wanted to say that PP was there for me way back in the 70s - a dismayed teen with a deadbeat BF. Yep, I guess I fit the stereotypical person anti-choicers rail against. But at PP, there were no questions asked (beyond health-related issues), there was no judgment, just respect for my decision, courteous treatment and a lot of friendly hand-holding. I will always be grateful to that organization.
My mom got an abortion shortly after she married my stepdad, because she busy fighting my bio dad for custody and my sister, stepsister and I were still young and she wanted to make sure she could be the best mom & stepmom to us she could without having to worry about another mouth to feed. I don't know if it was an "easy" decision, per se, but it wasn't a particularly difficult one and it's not one she regrets, though sometimes she wonders how things would be different if she had an 11-year-old son or daughter right now. I just recently found about this (my mom told me after I started getting more involved in pro-choice activism at my college) and let's just say it makes me that much angrier when people say that it's a super-difficult decision for everyone, or that all women regret their abortions. My mom knew what decision she had to make, and any amount of anti-choice propaganda wasn't going to sway her. And she's never regretted it or felt like a murderer. I'm really sick of people assuming that their perceptions of a situation are everyone's. Personally, if I got pregnant now, as a 19-year-old college sophomore who's having enough trouble paying for her own expenses, I would get an abortion, stat, with a totally clear conscience.
When do they show the pictures of a toddler throwing a tantrum at 2 am, keeping his/her single working mom awake through the night? Or the picture of the baby living with another family and the birth mother keening over the child she gave up, out there somewhere?
I mean, as long as we're presenting pictures that might influence a woman's decision about what to do with an unplanned, potentially unwanted pregnancy, when do the other options come up?
@ides: I was standing in front of the condoms last night at Target trying pick out a box when I heard a kid scream bloody murder an aisle over. I chose the the ones with spermicide.
I think that right this very moment, it would be a very easy choice for me. I'm not in a relationship, I'm not financially or emotionally ready, and am really wholly unprepared to deal with having a child. So, yeah easy peasy.
And, let's not even talk about 5 years ago, when I was 23 or 10 years ago when I was 18. There are not enough verys to put in front of the easy.
Then again, to me, every woman that I've known who has had to make that choice, it was the responsible and totally right choice at the time. I do not know any of these women who make a "frivolous" choice to have an abortion. A "frivolous" choice to have sex, maybe, but then again isn't it always a little frivolous? #theviewabortion
@lucyjae: Exactly. There are times when it would be a difficult decision to make. But there are times when it's sooooo easy. My freshman year of college I got a call from my best friend from high school, basically saying "I'm pregnant, so obviously I'm going to have an abortion. Can I stay with you the night before since there's no PP in my state?" Bam. Done. Easiest decision of her life, and had it been me, it would have been the same way. #theviewabortion
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I might have something resembling actual respect for those who do all of the above and have adopted babies who were carried to term instead of being aborted. #theviewabortion
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After the abortion, for unrelated reasons, my partner became obsessively jealous. He became emotionally and then physically abusive. He dumped me before I had the chance to dump him, and - good riddance - took off to live in another country. He is now married to a sex worker he met in that country in a decidedly non-egalitarian relationship.
I could have been Her. Instead, I am now Me, getting a degree next year and moving on to medical school after that. After medical school, I have no doubt, I will be providing women with medical care and unbiased, friendly advice if they solicit it.
And I won't be sorry at all. #theviewabortion
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It makes it appear that abortion is only a choice under the most extreme circumstances, and while it is the easiest argument to make, and understand -- abortion is actually a very common ocurence and a needed choice among all women in any situation whatever it maybe. #theviewabortion
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I mean, as long as we're presenting pictures that might influence a woman's decision about what to do with an unplanned, potentially unwanted pregnancy, when do the other options come up?
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You make an excellent point. #theviewabortion
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And, let's not even talk about 5 years ago, when I was 23 or 10 years ago when I was 18. There are not enough verys to put in front of the easy.
Then again, to me, every woman that I've known who has had to make that choice, it was the responsible and totally right choice at the time. I do not know any of these women who make a "frivolous" choice to have an abortion. A "frivolous" choice to have sex, maybe, but then again isn't it always a little frivolous? #theviewabortion
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