Anti-choicers, that is. In the arguments with anti-choicers that I get into so frequently these days, there are two trends I notice. They try to make us ‘admit’ to our pro-choice views, as if they were something to be ashamed of*. And they demonise us.
Oh, do they demonise us. The vitriol I have experienced from anti-choicers is shocking in its intensity and blatant hatred. They call us murderers. They tell us that we hate children, that we want to destroy innocent life, that we have no respect for life. They tell us that we are uncaring monsters.
I think I know why.
If we are not uncaring monsters, then we might have a point to be listened to. If we do care deeply for the welfare of infants, then there must be a genuine reason why we support abortion rights. If it is possible to respect life and also the right to access abortion? Then they might be wrong.
The only way that extreme anti-choice perspectives can justify themselves is to ignore the reality of the people who have abortions and those who support them. You can’t justify forcing someone to carry a pregnancy that makes them suicidal, or that destroys their body physically. Condemning someone to spend months growing a fetus who is doomed to die at birth is deeply inhumane. There is nothing but cruelty in telling a rape victim that for every minute of every day for 9 months she will be forced to carry her rapist’s child, regardless of her consent.
And yes, telling any person that they have no choice but to give their body up for a pregnancy they actively do not want is heartless, and destroys any notion of our right to bodily integrity and self-determination.
But if every pro-choicer is nothing more than an uncaring monster with no respect for life who takes joy in killing babies? You don’t have to engage with any of that.
That’s why they call us murderers.
*I’m not.
considertheteacosy.wordpress.com 
I agree totally… I am starting to get sick of arguing with these people, having the sort of conversations which are a cross between Kafka and Lewis Carroll. They know they can’t defeat logic, so they attack the source.
Ugh, the stories, from a friend raped at 16 and forced to carry and place for adoption, to what I see and hear and deal with every Thursday.
A year ago, a patient changed her mind and left. Protesters started gloating to me, and I remarked I was happy for her – she made a decision that worked for her. They didn’t believe me. To them, we cannot wait to lure someone into aborting, as if we relish every opportunity to terminate pregnancy. They don’t get we don’t want any involvement in decisions, we support each personal decision.
The link is to a site for the group that protests at the PP I volunteer for, the pictures from outside the facility. They haven’t got me on camera, yet. 😉
http://prayforlifecenter.org/
Caring for human life, at least for me, is one of the reasons I am pro-choice.
I suspect that any child brought into this world by a mother who doesn’t want them is worse off, and the quality of life of both the mother and child is likely to suffer. Regardless of her reasons, there is virtually no case where I can imagine quality of life being improved for all concerned.
That said, quality of life over quantity is difficult to measure.
Lol yes, because we’re the bad people in this situation.
I admire your patience in engaging with them. I wouldn’t be bothered.
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Are you not the anti-choicer? You an equalist, are you not?
Consider “pro choice” from a different pov: Men are given no choice in reproduction with abortion, nor are the unborn, however ‘unlifely’ pro-choicers may consider such lifeforms. Pro-choice only offers women a choice. “Pro-choice” is no choice for men. If women choose to abdicate parenthood, they can abort, if men do, they can get jail time for not paying child support. Where is the equality in that?
I have no problem with abortion in theory, but not when the monopoly on life falls to one party.
PS- Good writing, otherwise.
Most of the time, it’s not men who get pregnant. When they do, I advocate for exactly the same freedom to determine their own lives that pregnant women should have. Or pregnant non-binary people.
But I have a feeling that you’re not talking about gender identity.
See, the thing about abortion rights is that it’s not about people who aren’t pregnant. It’s about the right to control your own body. It’s not about abdicating parenthood. It’s about not being forced against your will to remain pregnant. See?
And kindly bugger off with your patronising PS.
So if you think a man should get to choose that a woman remain pregnant when her choice would be to NOT remain pregnant, so you also think he should get to choose that she not remain pregnant when she wants to be?
I completely agree. Sometimes people just don’t realize that they are not helping anybody by being so close-minded and absolutist and that this isn’t a light hearted decision. Nobody is saying that everyone should get an abortion, just that women have a right to choose.