The fetus fetishizing train has truly jumped the tracks of sanity with its latest "victim of abortion" propaganda strategy. The newest silent-no-more "victims" of abortion: oh, yeah! Men!Apparently the weepy victimhood of the "Silent No More" crew of fucked up post-abortive anti-choice women has failed to garner sufficient public sympathy -- something due in no small part to the fact that the vast majority of women who have abortions have no regrets at all. Would it be rude to suggest that the small minority who do harbour such guilt and indulge it so publicly likely had pre-existing psychological issues that would have revealed themselves eventually anyway, with or without an abortion? But abortion makes a good fall guy, an event they can isolate, point at and say "That's when I went fucking nuts":
"Arias, who is 53, often wears silver hoop earrings and low black boots, and she has a weakness for edgy zingers. She started doing post-abortion counseling 15 years ago. After what she describes as a revelation from God, she decided that her own pain and unhappiness were rooted in the abortion she had in 1973, when she was 19. “It was the year Roe v. Wade was decided, and I remember saying, ‘No guy in Washington is going to tell me what to do with my body!’ ” Arias said with a sharp laugh as we were driving. But after the procedure, she says, strange feelings washed over her. “I remember having evil thoughts, about hurting children,” she said. “It was like I’d done the worst thing I could possibly do. A piece of evil had entered me.”Whoa: Meds, stat! Despite the hysterical hyperbole, it seems that so-called "Post-Abortive Syndrome" is largely an invention of the anti-choice movement itself, a "condition" knowingly foisted upon the psychologically vulnerable to serve an ideological agenda. How compassionate of them.
"When Arias talks about the effects of abortion, she’s so fervent that it’s hard to maintain her gaze. But the idea that abortion is at the root of women’s psychological ills is not supported by the bulk of the research. Instead, the scientific evidence strongly shows that abortion does not increase the risk of depression, drug abuse or any other psychological problem any more than having an unwanted pregnancy or giving birth."Research? Facts?! Hell no, don't let pissy little things like The Facts get in the way of a good (or even not-so-good) fetus-fetishizing strategy. Maybe this is why they've called in the Reinforcements and now have men entering the imaginary guilt-ridden post-abortive fray... call the waahhhmbulance!:
"We had abortions," said Mark B. Morrow, a Christian counselor. "I've had abortions." Morrow spoke to more than 150 antiabortion activists gathered recently in San Francisco for what was billed as the first national conference on men and abortion. Participants -- mostly counselors and clergy -- heard two days of lectures on topics such as "Medicating the Pain of Lost Fatherhood" and "Forgiveness Therapy With Post-Abortion Men."150 activists, mostly counselors and clergy, not exactly what I'd call a "burgeoning" movement. And if reality-based research shows that "post-abortive syndrome" doesn't even exist in women, good luck proving it exists in men. But anti-choicers got away with making a fairly big deal out of PAS despite all the evidence against its existence, so who knows? They'll certainly be trying to gain some traction for this new and idiotic fantasy condition as well. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised to see them add the family dog into the goofy "Abortion Hurts" equation.
Update: When replying to a commenter, it occurred to me that the fetishists might well be shooting themselves in the foot with this latest tactic. In Canada, ever since Tremblay v. Daigle (which ruled men couldn't file injunctions to stop abortions), anti-choice men have been whining for legal recognition of their "right" to be part of the abortion decision-making process. (In other words, their "right" to interfere with a woman's decision to abort; pro-choice men don't seem to have a problem with it.) I can't believe the "post-abortive men" routine will be helpful to that end. Just sayin'.
(h/t birth pangs) (And more from The Galloping Beaver) (And a round-up at The Vanity Press)
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