Need a little support (in AL)

[celloise]

I am surrounded by anti-choice crazies who compare the pro-choice movement to the Holocaust. I am about to break. They are driving me crazy with their crap! I mean, is it really strange that I think men shouldn't really have a say since they are incapable of getting pregnant?!?!? And that an abortion decision is between a woman and her doctor ?!? That's what I get for staying in Alabama instead of moving to DC. *Sigh*

[shimmergal]

1. Hang in there!

Just read your post, and want to assure you you're NOT crazy! My real belief is like yours, that men have no "moral standing" to take a position against abortion, since only women experience pregnancy.

Don't know what I can do concretely to support you, but I couldn't stand your plea going unanswered.

[Scout]

2. my response to that....

If the victims of the Holocaust had been inside my uterus, "they" might have a point. But they were not, so there is no comparison.

If it's in my uterus, i control what will happen to it.

[ismnotwasm]

3. They are crazy

Not you. And I mean that, the forced birthers do not think, do not feel, do not reason, in any kind of productive way. They're are unable to see how destructively anti-life (to co-op a term)they are. It's all projection and displacement. And power and control.

Talking to them is very twilight zone. Whatever they think *life* is about, isn't. Some of them are like walking dead actually. They think they're saving lives while waiting to go to heaven. Creepy.

[Control-Z]

4. 'Some of them are like walking dead actually'

You have so hit the nail on the head. The walking dead is exactly what some many are like, especially the female followers, who are doing what they've been told by the almighty menfolk. I've looked into the eyes of these people - tried to ask a few questions, but they're vacant. They practically drool incomprehensibly when addressed. The extent of their communicative skills is chanting what they've been taught.

I'm not making this up. I've experienced it first hand at rallies and protests.

[iverglas]

5. on the utterly vile genocide/Holocaust comparison

You might be interested in this story. The abominable "Genocide Awareness Project" crossed paths with the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor on a campus in British Columbia a few years ago. (It also uses displays of photographs of lynching of African-Americans to make its "point".)

http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/gap.shtml


On a broader front, this organization's activities are an example of the use of the "free speech" rallying cry by the right wing in the last decade, to prosecute its war on vulnerable minorities and stifle genuine dissent, campuses being one of the right-wing's favourite battlegrounds.

[qwlauren35]

6. I find it wise to shift the conversation to the other "choices".

Attempt to have the birth control discussion, or the adoption discussion. If we are truly pro-choice, then we have to discuss other choices besides abortion.

I understand that you want choice for women. But we're also moving into a time in which SOME men want to take an active part in fatherhood, and aborting a fetus that a father wants to raise is hairy at best. I think it's important to get men talking about raising their children.

So many of us say that the pro-life movement stops carrying about life after the baby is born. However, I think we can actively challenge that, in a non-confrontational way, by discussing how to move forward once the decision to carry a child to term has been made. Especially a woman or girl that does not want the child.

Even Sarah Palin, ironically, did not say that she would FORCE a woman to carry to term a fetus conceived as result of rape or incest. She said she would encourage and counsel. So, even though she SAYS she's pro-life... she's more pro-choice than she's admitting. At least she's not suggesting that every woman who aborts is a common criminal who should be arrested for murder!

So then, the other angle is to have these discussions with women. The discussions about birth control. The discussions around helping girls and women make choices before conception. Coming to terms with teenaged sexuality (men cannot discuss this rationally when it comes to their own daughters.)

You may never convert them. But you can get them to take a more active role in expanding SOME choices. The more that our young women use birth control effectively, the more the abortion rate goes down.

[WildClarySage]

7. "I'm pro-life. I'll do all I can to see every baby is created with a future and potential.

The legislature should do all it can to protect human life."- SP

Nothing very pro-choice there. As for engaging with anti-choicers, forget it. They won't listen because it's not about babies, it's about controlling women's sexuality. And frankly, I don't care what any man wants with my uterus; it's mine and I'll do with it accordingly.

[celloise]

8. THANKS

Thanks for all the help, y'all. I think these posts really help me get my mind right and continue on in the face of the unbelievable ignorance that surrounds me all the darn time. It's tough being a tiny blue dot in a really red state.

[davefromqueens]

9. Tell them God is pro choice

because God created the tools necessary to build reproductive clinics, contraception, and the medical procedures necessary to have an abortion.

Tell them that since God determines when people are born, then if someone has an abortion, that this is God's will.

Of course you can mention that Osama Bin Laden agrees with them on the abortion issue OR

You can offer $100 to the first wingnut who can find the word abortion in the bible.

And if they disagree with you on the choice issue, ask them why they hate Jesus and God so much since Jesus and God are pro choice.

Humor, always humor.