Letters to the Editor
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From the comments...
"As a counselor at a crisis pregnancy center I can see you are suffering from post abortion syndrome. This is a replaying of the events of previous abortions along with many other symptoms one of which is a need to get pregnant to "replace" lost babies you can get help for your new pregnancy and your regrets about your previous abortions from your local pregnancy center."
Repetitive stories about parents forcing abortions on girls and girls regretting abortions. And post abortion syndrome? Are you kidding? Is that the same as post-miscarraige or post-period syndrome? Or post-reading bullshit syndrome? I have that now.
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Wow
Ironically it sounds very feminist, i.e., accepting of just about any choice a female makes, irregardless of the consequences to her children or other family members.
Interesting how the far right and mainstream feminism actually share much in common.
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Right-wing Christians lying about what they stand for? What a surprise.
See the "Intelligent Design" movement...
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So what exactly is the problem?
Why is this a bad thing? Girls are owning up to the choices they made, and deciding to keep their children and raise them as their own. They are not aborting them or putting them up for adoption so someone else can raise them. They are growing up and behaving resposibly. What's the problem with that?
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The propaganda is no surprise...
Your experience, Carol, was. What state was this in, and have their policies changed? As an individual with several adopted family members, I have a stake in encouraging adoption, and I'm always broken-hearted when people dismiss and belittle that choice-- especially for 11-year-old girls! Oy.
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@kufir77
"What's the problem with that?"
Nothing, if it's real. Is it real? I tend to doubt sources that employ any deception.
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Jimmy Boy
If you think accepting of just about any choice a female makes, irregardless of the consequences to her children or other family members sounds "feminist", you should learn more before sounding off. That's not feminist, that's your caricature of feminism.
And "irregardless" is not a word. Looks like you've got lots of learning to do.
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kufir77
The problem is that that's not what's happening. It is a propaganda site, likely written by middle-aged men pretending to be teenage girls who had babies.
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@Lynxette
Women killing their children and citing post-partum depression as a default defense for their actions, women killing their husbands, and getting off on "battered-women's syndrome" defenses with or without supporting evidence. Sounds like I'm right and you're wrong.
Oh, and see
http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless
for a definition of irregardless.
Wrong again, honey.
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It's the deception
If standupgirl.com really was a web site where teenaged moms shared their stories and got advice, that would be one thing. But it's not. It's a fake site that's intended to spread an anti-abortion ideology by deceiving teenagers into thinking it's easy to be a teen mom.
It's like those "astro turf" organizations that pretend to be environmentalists but are actually funded by the coal or oil industry. They are deliberately created to confuse people into thinking that they're concerned with the environment (down to their environmentalist-sounding names), but they're really industry front groups. This web site is similar, only it's a front for the anti-abortion movement.
If their anti-abortion message is as powerful as they claim, why do they have to resort to deception to spread it? Pregnant teens should get information about motherhood as well as adoption and abortion, but it needs to be factual and realistic about the difficulties they'll face.
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grammer police
Parson Jim, try reading the link you post. It's almost as dumb as using the word "Irregardless". Here is the definition you linked to:
Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.
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Finances
I'm not going to read the site but wondered, do they tell how these teenagers support themselves and their babies?
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Irregardless
cf. "Irritatingly Irredundant"
The problem with "irregardless" is that "regardless" already means "regardless." "Ir-" means "not." So even if it - like "ain't", contrary to the schoolyard comeback - IS in the dictionary, it still makes you sound like you don't speak no good English.
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Parson Jim: you are wrong.
What exactly does your last message have to do with the message you replied to?
What do your strange examples have to do with feminism, which at its roots is simply "empowering women"?
And the very link you quoted says that "irregardless" is NOT an acceptable usage. "Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead."
I understand that you are "of the right" and "just making things up and yelling" is considered an acceptable form of debate there. It is not for us. Please try to work on your reasoning and reading skills before bothering us further.
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It sends shivers down my spine
Very slick site, that probably cost a lot of money. Didn't long to stumble into the Lifer propaganda though.
On one hand, at least they are trying to persuade women not to have abortions, rather than trying to forbid it through criminalization. And perhaps they are even offering a bit of support of a sort to women who have kept their babies, always the Lifers' weak area.
But. BUT.
I call them women because they are having babies. But they are also children, and advertising to children is troubling at the best of times, and in the case of major life affecting decisions, truth & trust starts becoming pretty important. I have teenage daughters, who do surf the web quite a bit, and the thought of them stumbling into something like this sends shivers down my spine.
I've teen moms that had a lot of support from their family that did ok. (Carol, teens that have to use the services of a group home likely have other issues that would make success at parenting problematic.) One is a cousin (got pregant at 15), whose child is now a teen, and the other my sister-in-law (16), whose youngest just graduated university. Both support Choice, both literally and politically. If my daughter got pregnant, I would far rather she talked to her aunt or cousin than look at shit like this. She'd find out how hard it really is.