Crude miscarriage/abortion tweet gets national media attention
It’s interesting that this Twitter post…
… has made national news, including a featured story on AOL this morning…
But if abortion is such a grand constitutional right with no stigma or consequences, who cares if 1 expresses relief at miscarrying so she doesn’t have to abort?
Wrote Melinda Henneberger on Politics Daily in a piece entitled, “Tweeting your miscarriage: Is nothing sacred?”:
Short answer: R U kidding? No bodily function, emotional trauma or personal exchange is beyond bounds or beneath broadcasting these days. Thus did 43-year-old Penelope Trunk, CEO of the aptly named Brazen Careerist blog, Twitter her recent miscarriage: “I’m in a board meeting. Having a miscarriage. Thank goodness, because there’s a f***-up 3-week hoop-jump to have an abortion in Wisconsin.” (The asterisks are mine, not hers.)
Although my own first reaction was to look away and keep walking, such squeamishness was not widely shared. In fact, if the tweet was in part a PR stunt by Trunk, who makes her living by – wait for it – offering career advice to the young, it worked to perfection, and set virtual jaws flapping across the blogosphere and the political spectrum.
On the feminist blog Jezebel, Trunk’s disclosure was disparaged as both plain old gross and particularly unfortunate for supporters of abortion rights. “… [U]nfortunately for everyone, now that this has gone national, the context and way in which Trunk framed this confirms the worst and most fantastical ideas of the anti-choice movement: that women (especially career women!) who have abortions all do so casually and callously on their lunch breaks, the way one might get a manicure.”
At Slate’s DoubleX women’s site, Amanda Marcotte cheered the simple elegance of Trunk’s communique. And no, that is not a malign paraphrase. Marcotte, best known for the anti-Catholic rants that cost her her job as a blogger for John Edwards’ ’08 presidential campaign, wrote that she “wasn’t even remotely bothered” by Trunk’s tweet. On the contrary, “I found it to be an elegant instance of the power of Twitter and the way people have learned to pack so much information into 140 characters. We as a culture applaud men who come up with choice quotes to describe death, courage, and war, but if a woman employs brevity to express relief at a miscarriage, suddenly there’s an outcry against the dangers of getting to the point” too abruptly….
Marcotte missed the point. Trunk’s bomb was more the 2nd half of her entry.
Below is Trunk’s own take in a CNN interview. In it we learn Trunk is already mother to 2 children and experienced a miscarriage between those 2 that made her “sad.”
In another Trunk post, however, we learn She is also mother to 2 aborted children, one late-term (sometime after 14-weeks and “past the time when Planned Parenthood will do an abortion”).
Hence, 1 likely reason for Trunk’s miscarriages, but that’s another topic. Trunk wrote:
I got 2 abortions to preserve my career. To keep my options open. To keep my aspirations within reach.
I bought into the idea that kids undermine your ability to build an amazing career.
And here I am, with the amazing career….
She added:
But also, here I am with 2 kids. So I know a bit about having kids and a career. And I want to tell you something: You don’t need to get an abortion to have a big career.
She wrote that on June 17th. She apparently changed her mind, now going through the divorce of the father of 1 of her aborted children.
What comes first, messed up relationships due to abortion, or abortion due to messed up relationships? Last year the lesbian pro-abortion president of the American Psychiatric Association, Nada Stotland, told the LA Times that abortion doesn’t cause problems, but rather, “It may be, she said, that women who have abortions are more emotionally unstable in the first place.”
I concur Trunk is “emotionally unstable.” Just not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg, pardon the pun.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Beyond her unusually cavalier attitude toward abortion and miscarriage, the reason this has garnered attention is that no bodily function appears to be of a personal nature anymore to some people. ” I’m throwing up/taking a poop/ having a miscarriage/ bleeding through my tampon right now!” why?????
That message makes me sick.
Me too, Bethany. I just don’t know what to think/say/do about this…”woman”…She seems just like a little ball of “messed-up”. I’m sorry her two living children have to deal with a mother like that.
JUST LIKE HAVING YOUR PERIOD!!!! — I don’t think so!! I guess if I were as heartless as her I wouldn’t have the emotional trauma of losing a precious life — but the physical aspect was horrific!! I have had 2, possibly 3 (was a week late and thought I was going to die when my period finally came), miscarriages and they were certainly not anything like a period!! It is a big deal and should be treated with the respect and dignity that is accorded to the loss of a human life!! One wonders how the rest of her family feels about it — probably don’t want to know.
Xalisae, I agree. After having two miscarriages, her attitude about it just sickens me so much. But it is the typical pro-abortion mindset. Babies are just medical waste to be discarded and death is something to rejoice over.
Cat, I’m sorry for your losses.
Messed up relationships not strictly the province of those who abortion — to wit, Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston.
There is no doubt who Penolope’s god is.
?”Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Mt 7:19
Unless she repents, there is no doubt where this tree Trunk is going.
Someone told a friend that a mutual acquaintance died through their facebook wall. I think the most personal thing I put as a facebook status was that I lost my voice. When you put something on the internet, no matter how private you think it is, the entire world could see it.
Messed up relationships not strictly the province of those who abort — to wit, Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston.
First off, I heard miscarriages can be very painful, cramping, heavy bleeding, vomiting, and all that.
All of Trunks’ desperate attempts of salvaging her dignity is just incredibly sad to me. And while some women may feel relieved at miscarriages, many feel devastated about them, and to portray her miscarriage so cavalierly to all of her readers is incredibly poor taste. And, no, this is not a “feminist” issue it is a “tact” issue.
“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Mt 7:19
I don’t like that quote Ed. Couldn’t that be used to say infertile women are going to hell? What about women who have children with disabilities who may not be considered “good fruit”?
Just giving birth to lots of “perfect” babies does not make you a good person.
Wow, apparently Hazel really feels the need to harp on Bristol Palin (simply because she is a Palin, of course), and the no-talent, spotlight-craving, deadbeat, My-money-ticket-is-trashing-Sarah-Palin poor excuse for an adult male, Levi. :D
As for Penelope…really? I mean, let’s think before we Tweet, shall we?
What a sad woman!
How terrible!
TMI!
Wow. She is such an expert on miscarriage! 75% of women have them. 75% do not feel the same way she does about them. She is a slap in the face to those of us that lost children in miscarriage that we prayed to have and wanted very much.
The word brazen seems to fit.
Crude it is, but the bar was lowered by all those extremely crude and graphic photos used outside of abortion clinics. They have certainly contributed to the frank but disgusting tone of the conversation about reproductive matters nowadays.
A Woman–that verse isn’t about babies, it’s about words and deeds.
A Woman,
“Good fruit” does not need to mean healthy children. Our “fruit” is usually understood to be the results we effect… the “fruit” of our actions, our words, our attitudes….
Therefore, Penelope’s “fruit” is bad, as her actions, her words, and her thoughts indicate and spread a celebration of death.
Yes, blame the prolifers for an idiot who doesn’t know when to pause and ask herself, “Should I put this on Twitter??”
Carla,
Dontcha know? When something bad happens, it’s always the pro-lifers’ faults! Blame the pro-lifers!
Posted by: Margie at October 1, 2009 11:49 AM
Do you ever tire of blaming others because you have no couth? Maybe you can grow up one of these days.
MaryRose,
I keep forgetting that Ev.Er.Y.Thing. is our fault. Thank you for the reminder. Duly noted. :)
I don’t like that quote Ed. Couldn’t that be used to say infertile women are going to hell? What about women who have children with disabilities who may not be considered “good fruit”?
Just giving birth to lots of “perfect” babies does not make you a good person.
A Woman, that verse is talking about spiritual fruits- Love, Joy, Peace, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, etc.
It has nothing to do with babies.
I love how the only responses we’ve gotten from pro-abortionists so far is “Well, there’s other people who are rude too…so, so…this isn’t so bad!”
Thanks for the clarification Heather, MaryRose and Bethany.
Yes, I didn’t quote that verse referring to her miscarriage, but rather her heart that is so hardened that she feels no love or sorrow for her lost child.
So sad.
What an irresponsible thing for her to say. Very cruel to act so flippant about something that affects a significant number of women.
Ms. Trunk apparently has Asperger’s Syndrome, which helps explain her unfeeling approach to the incident.
I don’t think that’s an excuse for those pro-abortionists who are defending her though.
Wisconsin rocks! Also, I am saddened by the message that this women is giving to her existing children. I wonder if the thought crosses their mind that they barely survived their mother’s womb! It was NOT a safe place. God had mercy on the little one who is now in Heaven and not being raised in a home with this hard-hearted woman.
Dear heavens, what has this world come to? Twitter?
Hey, MaryRose- how are things? :)
Wow. You know, “crude”, “inappropriate”, or “blase” aren’t words that sprung to mind when I read this.
My first thought was: “Sociopath!”
Vannah,
Doing well, aside from stress over mounds of homework, an active toddler, and trying to keep the house in order lol!
How about you?
This “woman” is not educated enough on miscarriage to be speaking publically about it. She is completely misinformed and is only using her own experience to discuss the issue.
I also read her post regarding her other two abortions. She admits to killing her babies and admits it was hard, but then in this interview tries to make it sound as if abortion is as easy as getting a cup of coffee. Which is it???
Also, who would take career advice from some pathetically confused “woman” who doesn’t have the common sense to prevent an unwanted pregnancy in the first place (three times)
Wow! I’m sure glad God took her baby away from her before she could abort it…she was overly blessed to begin with when she was able to choose which two to keep. I wonder, if one of her current children passed away, would she twitter that, too? Would she be a little more upset?
How convenient that she gets all this free publicity for her company–I have to agree with Henneberger on this. Her potty mouth and cavalier attitude towards abortion suggests the careerist mindset she shares with a lot of “liberated” women her age, which conveniently is the exact venue she attempts to reach in her business.
Who knows for sure if it happened. Prolifers who regularly attempt to dialog with women at abortion clinics often encounter those who attempt to yank our chain with what they think are comments/behaviours sufficiently outrageous to get our goat. If they only knew how foolish they look.
The God that I love and serve did not “take my babies” when I had two miscarriages. That you are glad her miscarriage happened, JustMe is actually quite sad.
Carla,
That was my thought, too. Although, personally, I do believe that God did call your babies to Him! But I understand the difference in this attitude from JustMe’s ‘you were incompetent so God stole them’ attitude.
JustMe,
How horrible, that you would be grateful for miscarriage! Or that you would stand in judgment of who deserves to give conceive! Do you truly question God’s judgment in allowing the conception of those babies?
This woman is a sociopathic murderer, plain and simple.
HELLO OUT THERE! Does anyone realize that “miscarraige” has become the casual description of a chemical abortion?!! This career woman simply did not want to be tied down to the limited scheduling at the abortion clinic. Why miss an important meeting for a surgical abortion when you can “miscarry” and get your D&C later at the hospital at a more convenient time? Even the PP counselor in Indiana told Lila Rose in the undercover video expose that she could “miscarry at home” if she put some medicine in her cheeks….
That was my first thought, Mel. What a busy morning this woman had…a business meeting AND murdering her baby at the same time? What a multi-tasker.
This chick is disgusting.
Carla and MaryRose…who are either of you to take my sentence out of context and claim that “I” had an attitude!? I have miscarried twice myself unfortunately, and for whatever the reason, He did take those babies from me!
All I was saying is I’m glad God took her baby before she could murder it! In case you didn’t notice, she said she was going to ABORT it, so yeah, I’d rather God take the baby Himself before its death was brought on by being painfully “shredded” from her body!! Both of you need to get a grip and don’t make up nonsense just so you can have something to say…sheesh!
Also, in “my opinion,” she was overly blessed with the children she has – where did you get that I feel I should decide who should and should not conceive from that? Again, just more nonsense…get over yourself, MaryRose…I’m not the first to question wonders of this world!
Hating every second that I have to struggle through math, MaryRose, but I’m doing okay.
My Icelandic grammar is coming along better and my German books arrived! Woot woot!
Aw, I didn’t know that you had a toddler! What’s his/her name?
Baby!
Yeah, I like to put my cell phone on speaker when I am in the bathroom, giving birth to a barrak.
Twitting and tweeting would not do justice to the act.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, the audio is priceless.
The most gratifying part is the sound of the flush.
I wish making B.O. go away could be that easy.
yor bro ken
Who am I? I’m me. I’m Carla. I have opinions. So, Carla gets to have an opinion and comment on what other people say.
I disagreed with how you worded your comment.
I do not wish miscarriage or abortion on anyone. I’ve had both.
I shall take your advice and get a grip.
Vannah,
He’s 13 months. And he thinks he’s the center of the universe. Just wait till his little bro or sis arrives in January! ;)
Icelandic Grammar? That sounds fascinating!
And a great big YAY for books arriving.
JustMe,
Overly blessed with children, indicating more blessings than one should receive. As in, conceiving more than one deserves. Is this an inaccurate train of thought? Explain how.
You expressed a grateful attitude that a baby died. A thing for which to be grateful would be that Kourtney Kardashian chose NOT to abort, or that Norma McCorvey never actually had an abortion and, in fact, converted to a strong pro-life position.
Or perhaps to speak gratefully of the fact that the child’s final destination is clear.
I maintain that it is wrong to celebrate a child’s death, as though it was God’s punishment of a sort to the mother. You may disagree. That’s your God-given right.
I would get over myself, but I’m afraid I’m no acrobat.
Oh, name! Sorry, Vannah. I’m a little slow today! Nathaniel, but we call him Nathan.
I agree with Carla, JustMe. Having lost three babies, I know that GOD did not ‘take them away’ from me. John 10:10 says: “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life,and that they might have it more abundantly.” KJV. I hope you know who ‘the thief; is referring to, JustMe. Maybe it’s just my opinion, but GOD always gets blamed when bad things happen, but there is ‘another’ who is NOT God who I’d rather blame for ‘taking’ my babies. Although, the ‘joke’s on him’, because my babies ended up in Heaven , anyway. Like I said…just my opinion. :)
Pamela,
I once had a friend tell me that she looks at her life as though everything that has happened to her(good and bad)has been sifted through the loving fingers of her Father. He allows it. She trusts Him. So do I. :)
Carla,
See, that’s how I see it. All part of His Divine Plan in some way! :)
I trust Him too, Carla. After losing most of my family in just 4 years, if I didn’t trust Him, I wouldn’t be here now. :)
A bit of “irony” (if you will) to my posting about THIS particular article? …the ‘nickname’ I’ve gone by my whole life..is PENELOPE. :)
I love the name, Nathan, MaryRose. How is your pregnancy coming? Everything’s okay, right? I hope that you and your baby are healthy :)
And, yeah, you know how some people are Francophiles or Anglophiles? For me, there’s Iceland. I’m not sure what you’d call that.
But I love Iceland. And Icelandic.
:)
Vannah,
Pregnancy’s coming along very well, thanks. :)
By the way, to anyone interested, I recently found out that I’m going to have a new sibling 3 months after I have my second child. Yeah, that’s right, my mom is still “breeding”… we’re all full siblings, and this baby makes number 10! XD
Mary Rose,
Glad the pregnancy is going well and you have a Nathan! So do I!
Oh and congrats on the new sibling too!!
Pretty sure that the breeders will soon out number the ZERO-ONE child group. :)
LOL…Whatever, oh self-righteous ones. Hope you’ve enjoyed arguing with a wall!
What makes me so mad is that the feminists are MAD at her cavalier attitude towards abortion. WHY NOT? You lying pro-aborts!!! you told women that abortion is NO BIG DEAL, that it is NOT the killing of a baby, that it poses NO RISKS, that it is such an EASY procedure you could have one on your lunch break—then you get MAD when women take you at your word and treat it as such?
Lets get real–we are mad because deep inside we know that a pregnant woman has a BABY in her womb–and that abortion or miscarriage, a precious child’s life has ended.
The other thing–I was talking with a woman on a health website who was scheduled for an abortion this week. She is 14 weeks pregnant…Does anyone even know what goes on in an abortion? Especially a second trimester abortion? They use forceps to pull the arms and legs off the baby! Think about that–I mean REALLY think about it. Think about someone yanking so hard on your arm you can feel it tearing from your body. Then think of doing that to a baby. ITS SICK! ITS INHUMANE! And this cold-hearted woman Penelope did it for her volleyball career. UGH. I want to vomit.
It sometimes seems so unfair my dear cousin and his wife want kids more than anything and after ten years of marriage they still can’t get pregnant. And some women just conceive over and over and treat their own children like trash. God have mercy on us.
Reading the comments…where does one start? It’s just…they’re like locusts…so dysfunctional, yet abundant. And some of these people have children? Poor kids.
I do not know whether God or Satan is ultimately responsible for miscarriages, but because Satan is responsible (with the complicity of mankind) for the existence of death in the world, and nothing can happen apart from God’s will, I do not think it is wrong to say that either God (who takes them to a perfect life in Heaven) or Satan (who is responsible for the evil but does not possess their souls) causes miscarriage.
I do see how it could be an act of mercy for God to take the child before he or she would be aborted–mercy both to the child, who never knew pain, and the mother, who will not be responsible for another murder. I do not know, of course, whether this was the case.
I do not question God’s judgment. And I would never wish a miscarriage on anyone. But there definitely are people I would wish infertility on. I don’t think it’s wrong to wish that people who hate children didn’t receive them.
Wow – this is shameful! And to say that abortion protestors (of which I am PROUDLY one!) bring on this by showing pictures of murdered babies outside of death mills is laughable. The truth of these murdered babies is shown to TELL the world what is being done to these precious humans by those who have taken it upon themselves to decide the fate of another human’s life!
We are no better than Germany of the 40’s with this brazen, cold hearted hardness. Harden not your hearts – God will NOT be mocked forever!
This is sad beyond belief. This woman has highlighted the genocide in America. We do not have to go to another country to be witnesses to a culture of death.
If it were mutilated puppies in the photos there would be outrage at those who perpetrated the horror and were responsible for mutilating the puppies.
But photos of mutilated babies? The outrage is directed at those that photograph and show the horror NOT at those that perpetrated(abortionists)what is depicted.
You know what I did during my last miscarriage? Laid on the floor of the shower and cried. The pain was so horrific that I literally couldn’t stand up. I miscarried at around 7 weeks. I can not imagine someone being thankful for going through an experience like that.
Penelope Trunk wrote an article a while ago bemouning her abortions. Now she’s thankful for a miscarriage? She needs serious help.
Same here, Lauren.
Went into labor with both of my miscarriages and both were very painful.
Miscarriage is the body’s way of knowing that a pregnancy isn’t meant to be. Most are caused by severe genetic abnormalities. I don’t see it comparable to abortion in anyway.
The more I read of this chick, the more my stomach turns. Seems she spent the first part of her “career” as a glorified prostitute, and is now just a different kind of whore: an attention whore.
Why should this woman’s abortion(s) be seen as anything different than a prostitute’s abortion (which many on the pro-choice side would undoubtedly thumb their noses at)?…Killing your child to facilitate money-making is the same act no matter who does it or how. It boggles my mind how one person doing it is seemingly accepted and another is shamed. Personally, I think they should all be ashamed of themselves.
First off, I heard miscarriages can be very painful, cramping, heavy bleeding, vomiting, and all that.
I have never had one, thank God, but I heard they can be pretty awful. Makes me think of RU-486, which its promoters said “just” causes a miscarriage . . .
I really don’t know how to react to this in general. Wow.
“Ms. Trunk apparently has Asperger’s Syndrome, which helps explain her unfeeling approach to the incident.
I don’t think that’s an excuse for those pro-abortionists who are defending her though.
Posted by: Kevin J. Jones at October 1, 2009 1:43 PM”
I don’t think this is an excuse either, and I’m pro-choice (not pro-abortion, although I have a complex stance on the subject :S). My husband has Asperger’s, and he would have been devastated if we had lost our baby, so I’m calling BS.
explain “a complex stance on the subject”?
Why is a miscarriage any more lamentable than an abortion? Why is having a miscarriage bad, but “causing a miscarriage” intentionally is acceptable enough for you to want it to remain legal?