Posted on 12/12/2011 3:40:00 PM PST by wagglebee
There are a lot of negative stereotypes about the pro-life movement. I could easily write a list of 20 or more. These five, though, are the ones I personally encounter most often, and in the most capital letters. Youll probably find them familiar. If you dont know how to argue against these, you should.
5. Were all brainwashed.
Since they cant seem to wrap their brains around how a person might make an intelligent, informed decision to oppose abortion, anti-lifers sometimes like to assume we have all been duped. I have been accused, via Facebook, Twitter, email, and comment, of having been brainwashed by the following people or organizations: the Republican Party, Christians, the Vatican, white men, television, the conservative media, Sarah Palin, and the devil. I am not making any of those up.
While I suppose there are those who were raised inside Vatican walls and never heard a dissenting opinion, the truth is that even kids brought up in homes with pro-life parents were probably exposed to pro-abortion ideology somewhere along the way. It may have even happened without their knowledge.
Let me give you an example: I loved the movie Dirty Dancing as a kid. I wasnt allowed to watch it, but I managed to watch it almost constantly, starting at around age ten. A major plot line in that movie is a main character having an abortion. Everyone is super casual about it, although they never use the word abortion. The girl ends up getting hurt by the procedure, but the impression is that this is because the woman had to go to an unsafe doctor with a dirty knife and a folding table. Then a real doctor is called and the girl is okay and everyone dances some more. The impression I got as a kid was that abortion was a tragic and sexy thing that pretty girls sometimes had to get because they were so desirable and awesome.
I dont remember hearing anything about abortion from my church or my mom or my friends. I only heard about it from TV and movies, and it was always portrayed in the same light: a sad but necessary thing that boyfriends should pay for while wearing sheepish expressions. I ended up pro-choice until age 27, when I made a decision, based on little or no Chinese water torture by any Popes or Palins, that abortion was wrong and must be ended.
The best way to combat this stereotype is to share your own story. Let anti-lifers know the sound, rational, scientific and ethical reasons on which you base your pro-life activism. And dont let your kids watch Dirty Dancing.
4. Were violent.
This is my least favorite myth because its the least true. The pro-life movement is by definition an outcry against a violent act.
Eight people have been killed in the United States by anti-abortion protesters. Last I heard, they had all been caught and punished. Fifty million babies have been killed legally by abortionists since 1973. Yet were the side that gets called violent. Fifty million to eight Those are pretty dramatic numbers. Im gonna go out on a limb here and say its safer to be an abortionist than an unborn baby. Somebody somewhere is probably going to quote that in outrage, never mind the fact that is statistically 100% true.
The pro-life movement as a whole continuously and widely condemns acts of violence, yet anyone who professes a pro-life viewpoint is subject to being called a clinic bomber. Eight people out of hundreds of millions do not represent the movement, especially when their actions have been decried countless times.
If someone accuses you of belonging to a violent movement, remind them that since Roe v. Wade, every year an average of 1.2 million unborn children have been killed in the U.S., versus an average of two-tenths of an abortionist. The numbers dont lie.
3. Were all religious, conservative, and old.
Theres nothing wrong with being religious, conservative, or old, but its a mischaracterization. I am a conservative Catholic in my early 30s now, but when I became pro-life, I was a liberal agnostic in my 20s. While many probably most pro-lifers believe in some sort of deity, or at least in the human soul, not all of them do. The arguments that made me pro-life were grounded in science, ethics, and human rights. They had nothing to do with religion.
The friend who changed my mind knew better than to use a religious argument with me; I would have stopped listening. I was already wary because she was Catholic. I guess I thought she would sprinkle holy water on me while I wasnt looking. But she didnt. She just answered my questions I had a lot of them and by the end of the conversation I was, quite against my will, pro-life. I have remained so ever since.
I was also not a conservative, and many including the friend I mentioned remain pro-life and liberal or Democrat. The atheist, liberal New Yorker writer Nat Hentoff, after coming out as pro-life, experienced a backlash of negativity from fellow writers, intellectuals, atheists, Jews, and Democrats, but he stayed pro-life and a civil libertarian for the rest of his career.
A lot of people, when they think of pro-life activists, think of little old ladies saying the rosary outside a clinic. God bless those little old ladies and the work they do, but the truth is the pro-life movement is becoming a youth movement. Despite the fact that society in general seems to get more secular and less conservative, more and more young people oppose abortion. There is no consensus as to why, but it may have something to do with advancing science and technology. We know far more about the unborn human today than we did when Roe v. Wade was decided.
If someone tells you all pro-lifers are middle-aged white Christian Republicans, tell them theyre wrong even if you are a middle-aged white Christian Republican. I have known pro-lifers of every age, color, religion, and political persuasion. If you dont, try to get to know some. Theyre everywhere! Check out Secular Pro-Life, Pagans for Life, or Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League. They may have a perspective you havent considered, which will help build your arsenal of pro-life knowledge and arguments, and make your parties more interesting.
2. Were hypocrites if we oppose abortion but dont oppose (fill in the blank).
Can you be pro-life and pro-death penalty? Yes. Can you be pro-life and support the war in Iraq? Yes. Can you be pro-life and eat meat? Yes.
You cant compare these things to abortion. You cant compare anything to abortion, except certain instances of euthanasia, which by the way are also covered under the pro-life umbrella.
Abortion is child murder. Its the intentional killing of an innocent human being. And when I say innocent, I mean it in the most literal sense. I dont mean innocent of murder, shoplifting, or appearing on Jersey Shore, though all of these are undeniably bad things. I mean completely innocent. The unborn child has never harmed a living soul. He did not cause his own existence. He did not ask to be conceived. He is brought to life and, in an abortion, he is killed, most often for the same reason he was conceived: because his mother made a choice.
No act compares to abortion in its heinousness. So dont let anyone tell you that you must oppose the death penalty, or war, or meat if you are pro-life. Explain the difference between incidental death and intentional. Explain to them the difference between a cow and a human. Explain to them the difference between a convicted criminal and an unborn baby.
1. We have an ulterior motive.
This is the most common argument you will hear, and it honestly doesnt even deserve the term argument. It is a non-argument. An argument would be, Abortion is okay because the fetus isnt human, or Abortion is okay because the unborn deserve no rights. Those are arguments. Theyre wrong, but theyre arguments. Instead, I am often accused of pretending to be against abortion when what I really want to do is one of the following:
Take all human rights away from women.
Stop everyone from having sex.
Encourage child abuse.
Make promiscuous girls feel bad about themselves.
And so on. So instead of saying, Abortion should be legal because ., the presenter of this argument says, Well, you just want to enforce your Puritanical sexual values. Or, You just want people to have babies they cant afford. And so on.
Look. Im gonna take this opportunity to come out with it: I am secretly okay with abortion. I honestly dont mind if women go into clinics and pay doctors to suck their children out of them. What Im really after, what Ive really wanted all along, is to engage in slut-shaming.
This is my favorite non-argument ever. Written by freelance journalist and stand-up comic Amanda Grimes (whose graduate thesis was on gender and stand-up comedy), this blog made me literally wipe tears of laughter from my eyes. So shes got the comedy part down! According to Grimes, pro-lifers arent really interested in saving lives. What they secretly want to do wait for it is make slutty girls feel bad about themselves. You heard me. The ulterior motive behind the pro-life movement, according to Andrea Grimes, is slut-shaming.
Ms. Grimes, if by slut-shaming you mean encouraging young women to behave in ways that will result in less pain for themselves, their children, and society, it is certainly on my list of reasons for opposing abortion. However, I hate to break it to you, reason number one is that I am actually nutso enough to believe in the sanctity of every human life. Sorry to disappoint. Now get back to that groundbreaking, totally relevant thesis!
By the way, for the record, you know what changed Grimess mind about abortion? Ill let her say it in her own words:
Well, I got off my religious high horse and on to a sex life I enjoyed and found fulfilling.
That is profound, isnt it? She went to college, lost her virginity, and found out sex was fun! So then she discarded all the morals her parents went to the trouble to teach her, and went right the f*** out and got on birth control, which, as it often does, led her to going right the eff out and feeling okay about abortion. I believe wanting to take that choice away from others is deeply about shame and punishment and judgment, and not about righteousness and love.
Guess what, Grimes? Just because you believe something about us doesnt make it true.
So apparently, Ms. Grimes did not believe in the sanctity of life. She was merely having fun slut-shaming. But just because she didnt have strong, factual, righteous, loving reasons for opposing abortion doesnt mean thats the case for you, or me, or any other pro-lifer.
Dont let anyone assign you intentions that arent yours. We are pro-life because we care for women and their children. We are pro-life because we believe in human rights. Dont give an inch when it comes to your reasons for opposing abortion.
If you engage in any kind of pro-life activism you are going to encounter resistance. Not all of it will be honest, pleasant, or fair. If they havent yet, people are going to assume things about you and assign you traits and beliefs that dont belong to you. (Well get to the name calling in another article.)
Learn to politely, rationally, tell them why theyre wrong, and bring the issue back to what its really about: the reprehensible act of abortion, what it truly is, and why we have to stop it.
LifeNews.com Note: Kristen Walker is Vice President of New Wave Feminists.This post originally appeared at the Live Action blog and is reprinted with permission.
I just ask them why they are okay with an innocent American being murdered every 24 seconds.
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I would like to repeat this recent event.
I made a very pro-choice woman weep.
I listened to the pro choice woman who I’ve known for several years,describe many of her nine year old granddaughters life experiences including her granddaughters first visit to Disneyland along with several other lifes firsts moments while the whole time I smiled very approvingly.I let her joyously tell stories about her granddaughter who she obviously adored.
Then I asked the lady if their was a time machine, would she want to relive those precious moments all over again??
She ecstatically said YES !!!
I then asked her, knowing she was very pro-choice, what would she do if she was in this time machine,saw her pregnant daughter walking into a Planned Parenthood to exercise her reproductive rights, as granted by Roe vs Wade and knew that her granddaughter would never be born since she was only a blood clot being eliminated from her daughters body???
The pro-choice lady cursed me out and then cried.
Bottom line: Pro-Choice folks know DAMN well that they are killing.
Exactly, but they consider themselves to be elites and the babies who are killed are better off never being born.
I agree with the comments about “Dirty Dancing.” I always hated the show.
Sir, with all due respect.
Some might feel that way.
Some might even try to convince themselves that they are better off for it.
But the reality? I don’t think there’s a day that goes by when they don’t ask themselves what might have been. That’s the honest truth, whether or not they admit that to themselves, that is how they feel.
And sir, yes I do know from personal experience that this is the case.
what do you do when they squeak, put their hands over their
ears and run away? [this was in a discussion of late
term abortion, to be accurate?]
The biggest reaction I get when talking to a pro-abortion type is when I ask them if they know that the child can feel pain as it’s killed.
First, they reject the thought, and I ask how they think they can expect me to believe that a child can feel no pain within the womb, and suddenly react to it outside the womb. It’s nonsense and they know it.
My own mother is one of these. I feel bad that I haven’t broken through to her. She is such a sweet lady but her church tells her women must have a right to “choose.” That’s right, her church. Another dying liberal congregation.
I have regular arguments with liberals about this and other issues.
Most often, I’m called “sick, ignorant, disgusting, evil,” I’m accused of forcing my moral agenda on them, and always ends up them shouting. I never argue from a religious point of view, but I’m always accused of that. Oh, and how can I forget my “Faux news talking points” despite the fact that I don’t have TV, and very rarely ever visit the Fox News website.
You know you’re none of those things they project onto you. Our houses are built on rock; who cares what liberals think?
I’m surrounded by them at work, easy to ignore their arrogant opinions. But when family members are liberal, it makes me so sad.
Those who walk in darkness are responsible for the wrath of God we are now experiencing. “Thou shalt not kill “ is one ofHis Ten Commandments, and abortion is murder! The society of Death is a very real part of what is to come, for in not too many years from now it is planned to do away with 90% of the world’s population.
There will be the very welathy elite and there will be their slaves.
Uncombatted, this is surely coming.
If Americans do not repent and turn from their sins, this will, indeed, come about. God gave us this amazing country with all it’s wealth of resources and beauty. God inspired our sacred documents for a Christian people. Yes, afer 1620 this country was developed by Christian people. As
long as each genereation lived according the the laws of the Bible, we were propsperous, happy and free.
When Evil swept over our land it took the souls of men. The Christian lifestyle was insicuously invaded us with lies and corruption. So America will be punished, for God is taking His favor from us! The only way back to our freedoms, properity, neighbor loving days is to humble ourselves before our Maker, change our wuicked ways and live in happy obedience to Him.
Don’t take my word for it. Read: “The Light and the Glory”, by Peter Marshall and David Emanuel. This was the best documented and written book on early Americab history I have read yet. \\Then read “The Illumionatil Facts and Fiction”, by Mark Dice.
Anne Coulter’s “Cemonic” would round out that little collection very aplty.
These tomes should scrape the scales from blinded yes. God loves every one of us, and He anxiously awaits our return to Him. But best of all, please dust off and open your Bibles.
May God be with us all.
Great quote.
That statement is made, pretty much verbatim, by a lot of pro-life writers.
I8t really should be:
"We are pro-life because we care for women and men and their children."
Pro-life writers make a critical error in judgement by presuming men to be a negative or absent factor, and thus discluded from positive statements.
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