Rumor has it a speaker from "Feminists for Life" is coming to my campus

[benevolent dictator]

Rumor has it a speaker from "Feminists for Life" (and the don't mean "forever") is coming to my campus for an event next week. Has anyone heard these people speak? Any suggestions for good questions to ask? (You know, that aren't terribly sarcastic, harassing, or rude.)

I just googled their web page - http://www.feministsforlife.org/ - and the quote on their front page is "Women who are experiencing an unplanned pregnancy also deserve unplanned joy." At the bottom of the page it says "REFUSE TO CHOOSE® WOMEN DESERVE BETTER® THAN ABORTION." They seem like scary people.

I'm just trying to think of some stuff to ask ahead of time, because I'm sure once I'm there I'll be pretty pissed off by the Q&A section.

[Katherine Brengle]

1. Um, I don't know much about them, but...

I agree with that premise, that women facing an unplanned pregnancy should be able to feel joy from being pregnant.

I think that one of the causes of stress around an unplanned pregnancy comes from the fact that we, as a society, don't celebrate women's pregnancies and the great gifts that we bring into the world.

I am gonna check out the site and do a little research tho.

[VelmaD]

2. Not everyone want s to be pregnant...

not everyone wants to be a parent. Telling women they have to feel joy at being pregnant whether they want to be or not isn't right.

[Katherine Brengle]

6. Christ, calm down --

I didn't say that.

I said that it is a damn shame that we don't live in a culture that honors women and celebrates motherhood.

That does not translate to "All women want to be mothers and every pregnancy should be carried happily to term."

How about not jumping all over a freaking ally here?

[VelmaD]

10. I hope you've completed your research on...

"Feminists for Life" so you understand that that particular group would FORCE women to bear children against their will and expect them to be happy while they did it.

And honoring women and celebrating motherhood are two entirely different things. As a single woman in her 30s with no plans of ever having children...I think our society gives too much emphasis to having children. Not that we do it in a good way...but believe me, I catch merry hell all the time about how I'm not an adequate woman because I haven't had a baby.

[Warpy]

4. Sometimes YOU JUST DON'T WANT THE KID

and you don't want to risk your life producing it.

All the celebration and herbal romance around it in the world is not going to counteract that one fact. I find the suggestion that it would unrealistic and disgustingly patronizing.

If you're pregnant against your will, JOY is just not going to enter into it.

[Katherine Brengle]

7. See my reply #6.

[noamnety]

8. I second that

There's a difference between unplanned and unwanted. Lots of women are fine with unplanned pregancies. Those would be the women with the means and desire to raise a child. An unwanted pregnancy, on the other hand, isn't a cause for celebration, and like Warpy said, all the holistic community celebrations in the world can't fix that, and it IS patronizing to think that of course women would want to have babies if only society was more supportive.

[jmm]

3. I first heard about them when it came out that

the wife of John Roberts is a member.

The firs question that comes to my mind is how can they call themselves feminists when them don't want women to have dominion over their own bodies?

[Warpy]

5. Same way they call themselves Christians, I guess,

when they support all the GOP policies that Christ would have spoken out against.

Some people just tell LIES about themselves so they can live with themselves.

[ismnotwasm]

9. Ask them about selective abortions during multiple births

(We have a women up here who just had four due to fertility drugs and the press is jumping all over it, and the "church is raising funds" to help the young couple)In fact ask them why so silent on the subject on fertilized unimplanted ova. Ask them about diseases with known genetic markers that will kill the child before the age of 3, diseases that will cause pain and suffering to the child. Ask them about mole pregnancies, the anecephalic fetus, debilitating birth defects that endanger both mother and fetus.
Ask them about hyperemesis, Preclampsia, Maternal diabetes, post partum bleeding, including DIC. Ask them about an incompetent cervix, or multiple miscarriages. Do these women have the right to attempt to bear a child over and over again? (Not MY business) Ask them about the world infant mortality rate.--Or is it just in the good old US we worry about little ones? Turn the tables every change you get. Test their limits. Every time they get all everything is beautiful on your ass, point out that every birth is not beautiful, nor welcome, nor safe, or even a good fucking idea. I'm sure you'll think of some good ones.

If you feel like it, you can even tell them they're completely full of shit, because they can't guarantee joy.

Oh, and tell them their slogan sucks. Refuse to choose. Bullshit.

[Finder]

11. They promote adoption over abortion.

If you read through or look at those who fund and sit on the board they are often banded with the anti-feminism types.

That said, there are many feminists who are personally pro-life(by definition)but pro-choice politically.

I do agree that unplanned pregnancies do not all need to be aborted but also agree it should ALWAYS be the woman's choice whether to keep, give up for adoption, or terminate.

[Kerrytravelers]

12. They are disturbing, to say the least.

Their little spokesperson is none other than that annoying, nagging woman from Everybody Loves Raymond, patricia heaton- shrub lover extrodinarre. She is a fundy fruitcake. I've seen her in an E! interview. She is just dreadful. Simply dreadful.