I’m going to be writing a talk about the myths of what it means to be pro-life. If you have a favourite, please let me know. Things like “pro-lifers are all men” or “pro-lifers are all religious” or “religious people are all pro-life”–that kind of thing. Merci.
by 
Pro-life people don’t really care about the unborn, they just pretend to in order to oppress women. AKA the “hidden agenda”
Pro-life people are all over forty.
Pro-life people are all conservative.
Pro-life people are anti-science (ha!)
Pro-life people favor the death penalty.
Pro-life people are sexually repressed.
Pro-life people have been brainwashed by their parents/clergy, when they are enlightened they will become pro-choice.
If I had to pick one big pet peeve, it would be:
Pro-life people are against contraception and family planning. It is not true of I and it is not true of anyone I know.
Pro-life women are all submissive, unassertive, emotionally repressed women who are at their husband’s beck and call. They have no thoughts, desires or dreams of their own. They’re basically Stepford Wives. They’re all rich and have maids and nannies. They’ve never had a crisis pregnancy. They’ve never been poor and pregnant. They’ve never faced a critical prenatal diagnosis. They’ve never had a pregnancy as a result of rape. They can’t think for themselves. They’re essentially incubators and are tools of the patriarchy who are complicit in the future establishment of the Republic of Gilead (re: Margaret Atwood).
And we’re all June Cleavers!
I don’t know how many times I’ve met FEMINISTS whose treatment of me was based on one or more of those stereotypes.
But we’re the misogynists!
Here’s my Feminine Myth Pique, which not only tells the world everything it thinks it needs to know about pro-lifers who happen to be Catholic, but is also a great showcase for culture-of-death logic at its finest:
Catholics are anti-choice because the Church “sees women as baby machines”. (Direct quote from my grade 11 English teacher.) (That’s why it also holds that renting someone else’s womb, for instance, is contrary to human dignity and the natural law.) Also, Catholics are touchy about issues surrounding abortion because they hate and fear sex so much… which is obvious from the large families they are routinely ridiculed for having.
This will be fun, listing out some of the fallacious myths I’ve heard. Additionally, the only way I’m getting through this list is by saying it in an extremely stuffy accent.
Pro-lifers are ALL…
Sexually repressed
Unable to get laid
Afraid of female sexuality
Subservient to the patriarchy
Prudes. (The period is necessary)
Misogynists
ROBOTS (that one I just made up)
Old and wrinkled
Extremists
Unwilling to take care of children once they’re already born.
Hypocrites
Men
Ignorant
Unattractive (because apparently how a person looks affects their arguing ability… )
People with Stockholm Syndrome
Breeders
“Fetus Fetishists” – I actually saw this one from one of this blog’s detractors.
Oppressive
Yes, I’ve heard a TON of them, mostly from my blog surfing. Yes, my brain did hurt typing this LONG list of awkwardness. 🙂
1) Only care about fetuses.. not involved with babies after they are born.. do not care about children (ie childcare etc)
2) it is specifically a Catholic (or generally a neo-conservative Christian) thing. There is no such thing as Feminists for Life or Atheists for Life
3) Anti-science. Clearly if we only had wanted babies, there would be less child abuse etc etc
Hannah – I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard “fetus fetishist”!!! It almost makes me want to say, “Yes, I do fetishize fetuses. What of it?” just to see what the reaction would be.
Ha! Or maybe try something like “Well, they’re certainly prettier than your tattoo!”
Thank you all! (As a side note, “fetus fetishist” make me laugh for being the most useless insult ever. And I don’t think that’s their point–to make me laugh.)
“You people”….as in “You people should not be allowed on the street”, “You people should get a life” and “You people should stop trying to impose your morality on us.”
How about pro-lifers are a minority in Canada (at least according to one feminist professor that I heard interviewed on local news)!
Fetus Fetishist: the 21st century’s n****r lover.
That’s the way I look at it. It’s the same tactic.
Kristina – it’s hard to speak out against artificial contraception & family planning because so many otherwise pro-life people (myself included) have done it. But here are several good reasons why pro-lifers should be against it:
1. a lot of so-called ‘contraceptives’ are actually abortifacients – they work by changing the lining of the uterus, making it hostile to the newly formed embryo, so that she can’t implant there.
2. in many cases, contraception is the ‘raison d’etre’ for abortion; about half of all women who abort list ‘failed contraception’ as one of the reasons for the abortion. In other words, when contraception fails, they think they have a ‘right’ to an abortion.
3. this one’s a no-brainer; sound it out: contra (con)ception. Contra means against; conception is the beginning of life. Against life.
Jean, I’m sorry I have taken so long to respond to your comment, partly because I wanted to really think my answer through.
1) While there is a chance that the birth control pill will keep a fertilized egg from implanting it’s a fairly small chance. I just learned that breast feeding can also keep a fertilized egg from implanting. Should we discourage sexually active mothers from breast feeding? Secondly, I believe you have to choose your lesser evil. In my case keeping an egg from implanting (which is when pregnancy begins) is a lot less evil than aborting an already implanted embryo. Also, there are methods that absolutely will not prevent implantation, like barrier methods and non-penetrative sex.
2) I’d say failed contraception is the reason they got pregnant, not the reason they aborted. If you removed all contraception yet kept abortion legal people would still have sex and women would still get abortions. It is absolutely true that birth control fails, but that’s a reason to use two methods, not zero. How about spermicide + condoms?
Cont’d.
3) I’m sorry, but this argument really makes me angry. Equating not conceiving to abortion really cheapens the pro-life argument. We are not against abortion because it prevents a potential life from coming into being, we’re against abortion because it destroys an *already existing* life. This is what the pro-choice people constantly criticizes us for – caring more about potential future children than real children, and we mustn’t play into their hands. If you truelly believe that contraception is anti-life, is NFP also anti-life? How about abstinence? Post-menopausal sex? All kinds of sex that doesn’t end with a penis in a vagina? I’m very sure pro-life people do all those things. This is a dangerous road to walk down, and if we want any credibility as a movement it’s one we mustn’t.
1 a) Fairly small chance: hmmm, there’s a fairly small chance that you will win really big in the lottery, but if you do, it sure makes a big difference in YOUR life, doesn’t it? There are several different types of bc pills out there; some are better at inhibiting ovulation than others. If ovulation doesn’t occur, then there is no egg, but if it does and the egg gets fertilized, that’s when plan b comes into play – the lining of the uterus is altered so that the embryo can’t attach.
b) Breast feeding works by inhibiting ovulation, not by preventing implantation.
c) A new life begins when the sperm penetrates the egg, not at implantation. It doesn’t matter what you call it (pregnancy, conception or whatever). Our Supreme Court denies preborn human beings their right to life by saying they’re not ‘persons’, but a life is a life is a life – you can’t make it “not-a-life” by giving it a different name. The myth that pregnancy begins at implantation is a tool to justify selling/using pills/methods that prevent implantation of a fertilized egg. Implantation is just a milestone in life, just like birth, puberty and adulthood. Is it less evil to kill a person at birth than at puberty?
d) Barrier methods and non-penetrative sex prevent the sperm from reaching the egg, therefore they are not abortifacient because there is no new life.
2 a) Failed contraception is the reason they got pregnant, AND the reason they aborted. webMD says that over half of women who aborted were using some form of contraception during the month they got pregnant; Planned Parenthood says it’s 60%. When contraception fails, they feel cheated, and abortion is the back-up plan.
b) Birth control fails because a) there’s a built-in reliability rate that’s usually less than 100% even when used properly and consistently; and b) people don’t use it properly and consistently. If people can’t use one method reliably, what makes you think they’ll be any better with two?
3) Your original post said “pro-life people are against contraception and family planning”. I said contraception is ‘against life’. What I meant is that couples are not open to new life when they are contracepting. In that context, these particular statements have nothing to do with abortion, and I was certainly not equating ‘not conceiving’ with abortion.
Are all pro-lifers ‘open’ to new life at all times? No. There are good reasons for spacing children, but there are advantages to doing it naturally rather than artificially. Abstinence and NFP are natural. Those are the ways that God built into the program to allow for spacing. NFP is about an attitude of respect for each other and for your bodies, whereas artificial contraception says ‘no’ to God, and says I’m not giving myself totally to my spouse – I’m holding back my fertility. Is sex about a total giving of spouses to each other, or is it all just fun and games – ‘recreational sex’? (Janet Smith explains this so much better than I ever can; her talk is called “Contraception – Why Not?” – just Google it)
And finally, if we want credibility as a movement, we must be brave enough to go to the root cause.
PS – In # 2b) b) above, I meant to say ‘a lot of people’, not just ‘people’.