I just stumbled across this blog. The poster below is a little bit crass, but conveys the point we are all trying to make: You aren’t some big and noble defender of women’s rights when you are pro-choice. I just had a man write me and say being pro-woman and pro-life is an oxymoron. I engaged the issue with him a tiny bit. Where the discussion has been left for right now is with him saying he supports a woman’s right to kill her child with or without medical reason. Incidentally, the euphemism he used was “terminate a pregnancy.” I think I may further make a George Jonas point to him which is simply this: You can be pro-choice, but please, you should very much understand what it is you are advocating for and “terminating a pregnancy” masks what it is a woman is doing in abortion. Masking that reality helps no one and is certainly not “pro-woman.”
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Melissa says
Does the fellow really not get the irony? He is a man, telling a woman how to be pro-woman. Because, you know, if we actually get the idea in our pretty little heads that abortion is an ugly solution to a temporary problem, he just might not be able to score quite so frequently. What a dork. (And dork isn’t the word I really wanted to use here, but Andrea won’t let my comment stand if I use the language that I really wanted to use.)
Brigid says
I checked out the New Wave Feminism website and think it is absolutely brilliant. It takes the abortion / sex without responsibility mindset, which is a blight on our culture, and uses humour to provoke discussion and challenge the status quo. If there is ever going to be any movement on this issue, it must first be brought into secular consciousness with less emphasis on the religious perspective.
Andrea Mrozek says
Brigid, I agree. It’s a clever web site.
Melissa, I suppose in keeping with my belief that men and women are both free to express themselves on abortion, I can take it when a man tells me I’m not pro-woman for being pro-life. If I couldn’t, I might be a bit like the pro-choicers who gnash their teeth when men are pro-life, claiming they can’t have a voice, but then warmly welcome the pro-choice men…
Melissa says
I’ve gotta say, Andrea, that I don’t have a problem with men arguing for or against abortion from a philosophical, human rights, or medical perspective. But my hackles really get raised when a man tells a woman that she is anti-woman for being prolife. I would also get really irate if a man told a woman she was anti-woman for being prochoice, although I don’t think I’ve actually ever heard a man say that.
For the record, it does bother me when men tell women how they should feel about abortion. I find most of the men commenters on this site to be quite respectful, but I have met a couple of men in my lifetime who I simply couldn’t stand to be around because they were quite happy to tell me how I should think.
Megan says
Brigid, well said! It’s time for people to stop assuming all pro-life advocates are fundamentalists. We need a paradigm shift, for sure.