Truth or Consequences
The so-called "pro-life" movement has always claimed to be all about cherubic little fetuses demanding their Fetus-y Charter Rights, a strategy that plays well with fundamentalist religious doctrinaires, but has little app
eal outside of wingnut circles. In an effort to reach out and infect the mushy middle of the issue, their latest marketing ploy attempts to co-opt feminist ideals, positing that abortion is bad, not just for the angelic little fetuses, but for women. "Abortion hurts women", "Women deserve better than abortion", and most ridiculously "Rights for Unborn Women" are a few of the slogans being spun around No Choice land these days. They love us, they really really love us. That's why they want to punish us.
eal outside of wingnut circles. In an effort to reach out and infect the mushy middle of the issue, their latest marketing ploy attempts to co-opt feminist ideals, positing that abortion is bad, not just for the angelic little fetuses, but for women. "Abortion hurts women", "Women deserve better than abortion", and most ridiculously "Rights for Unborn Women" are a few of the slogans being spun around No Choice land these days. They love us, they really really love us. That's why they want to punish us.I've always felt that the whole "pro-life" shtick was misogyny driven by a sick fear and hatred of sex. Not just because it would deny women reproductive self-determination, but because it seeks to punish women just for being sexual. (And I'm not alone in that belief.) No-choicers deny this, saying they couldn't care less about our sex lives; it's all about the "the babies". But their other statements belie this: "That's what she gets for having sex when she's not prepared to have a baby" was one comment I saw on a fundie discussion board. "That's what she gets" -- that's what you get, like a punch in the face, except in this case it's a punch in the cunt. Fundie sexual attitudes are so fucked-up that for a woman to enjoy sex rather than endure it for the purpose of procreation is a punishable offense.
"Or maybe you just would rather go on your merry "sex without consequences" way without having to be bothered by the inconvenient truth that abortion is an act of violence that kills a baby."
That comment was made to me by an anti-choicer here. Does that sound like someone who cares about the supposed "harm" to women from abortion? It sounds to me like someone passing disapproving judgment on my very private personal life, which is apparently something he thinks should be punished... with consequences.
The punishment phenomenon explains why these same people hate gays. On its face, there's no connection between gays and abortion -- as George Carlin famously said, anti-abortion fundies and gays "should be natural allies, because who has less abortions than homosexuals?" But it's not about the fetuses, it's about the sex. Gay sex is what fundies think of (and they seem to think of it a lot) as "sterile sex" -- no intention to procreate, just the pleasure of the flesh. With no "consequences".
As a straight female whose only pregnancy was terminated, among fundies I must be an even more despised species than gays. 40 years of potential pregnancy chemically, mechanically and surgically thwarted, for the express purpose of "sex-without-consequences".
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