Letters to the Editor
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the neuroscientist makes a great case
for what I've been saying all along. If those of us (I said us) who do support a woman's right to her reproductive health would simply be honest about what abortion is, I believe we would easily sway that huge middle ground who in theory supports a woman's right to her reproductive health but since we've been dishonest about what exactly an abortion is and does have lost the battle (and soon, I regret, probably the war) to the far right, whom we've allowed to take the truth and color it in a most biased way.
Unless and until we acknowledge that abortion takes a human life--and that a woman, being the host of that life, still has the right to decide whether or not to attempt to carry that pregnancy to term--we will continue to lose ballot initiatives and court cases with alarming frequency.
It also wouldn't hurt if somewhere along the line we also acknowledged our reproductive rights carry a measure of responsibility for anyone (male and female) choosing to engage in sexual activity. Call me crazy, but demonstrating some effort before we get pregnant (or before we get someone else pregnant) isn't quite the burden some people make it out to be...just to relieve their conscience of the tremendous burden it must be to develop a relationship before fucking like bunnies.
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Xochitl Johnson
Thanks for the laugh...unless you were serious using slavery as a metaphor for the rights of the unborn. Many thought (wrongly, of course) that humans were only 3/5ths of a human. You're making the same argument, yet you reduce a human to a "wad of tissue." Congratulations! You would have been right at home as a Southern slaveowner.
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It doesn't matter
whether it's a person, 3/5 of a person, or a wad of tissue. If it lives in my body, I get to decide what happens to it.
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It doesn't matter
whether it's a woman or something else, -- if it lives in my house, I get to decide if it lives or dies.
-- Velora
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Microosm of *THE* issue in America
It's weird that a big thing is being made of this; and yet....
And yet it may very well be an important urban fable for us all. "Area man..." could just as well read, "Middle America Doesn't Think Bush A Complete Jackass."
It reminds me of a guy I worked with at a Community College at the time of Bush Jr.'s "Shock and Awe." We both taught ESL. He is that particular species of fundamentalist Christian, and was at the time a wild apologist for George W, even to the point of saying, "This Iraq invasion, from the standpoint of military planning and strategy, rivals the finest work of the U.S. military in WWII."
I had to point out a small detail to this guy: Hitler's forces were well-armed, Iraq was still pallid and flabby from 11 years of sanctions, and not really seriously armed. In short, the Iraq invasion was just the opposite of his description; a show of supreme cowardice masquerading as War Presidentialism.
Well, isn't that just the "Area Man" story writ bold across the underbelly of Middle America?
I guess we should feel fortunate: The solution to the problem is simple enough, because the moral calculus is elementary. We just need to be present--and have the presence of mind--to meet and greet these folks and encourage them to a better understanding of how the moral universe works. Heck, you can even quote the New Testament to them, since it's on target on these issues often enough. The fields are ripe for the harvest folks; don't be discouraged. Let's roll up our sleeves.
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MjT
How can you compare a house to a woman's body? A house is something you can sell and transfer among people. You can own a house-- is that how you feel about a woman's body? That someone other than the woman can decide how to use it? A house can't have opinions or feelings about how it is used. What a bizarre comparison.
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rude is not something to brag about
velora's lack of compassion is why we'll keep losing this fight for our rights
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So Sorry
I'll go light a candle for a fetus right now!
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feminist to Velora: stfu
You're not exactly helping the cause by being snarky about this very personal decision. Just because your mother wishes she'd swallowed instead of spread that night is no reason to project your own bitterness on the rest of us.
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Feminist
If you are really a feminist, why are you taking issue with me instead of the person who compared a woman to a piece of property? (unless you're the same person; the anonymity of the internet sure is tempting isn't it?) On to your points:
1) My conception was purposeful. It's actually an interesting story, but here is obviously not the place to tell it.
2) Ad hominem attacks don't further your argument. I have a critical thinking textbook I could lend you if you're interested.
3) I've noticed a lot of letters with "stfu" as the main point in the past couple of days. Was Salon linked on Fark or something?
If you really are a feminist who is concerned about our rights you should be combating the idea that a woman's body is little more than a "house" for a fetus. That's a harmful idea and it reduces us to the status of objects. If a woman has no control over her own body, what hope do we have?
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talk about straw men
We have a lot more control than we care to admit. However, when we choose to play the "victimhood" card we cede much of what we posess. What you lack is compassion, and that is why we on the left lost the vast middle to the tiny far right. In all your blathering there is not one iota of compassion or respect for the life we have every right to end for very personal, private reasons. To be right, but for the wrong reasons...that's why we're about to lose Roe v. Wade. Pardon the pun, but it wouldn't kill you to acknowledge that most women mourn at the life they chose to end, even though their reasons were sound and their rights intact. That is where feminism has thrown out the baby with the bathwater. Thanks for nothing.