Guttmacher Institute official laments state abortion restrictions
by Kelli
The action surrounding abortion restrictions is much more intense than what we were seeing 10 years ago.
While the restrictions are somewhat concentrated in states like Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma, 30 states have adopted some sort of abortion restrictions since 2011. It’s not just the South. It’s not just Kansas….
One part of me wonders if the backlash against abortions is due, in part, to that we don’t often hear women’s stories about abortion. It is amazing to me that when women tell their abortion stories, we say ‘Oh my God, you’re so brave,’ instead of seeing it as part of the human condition.
We see a real change in how the LGBT community is viewed. We haven’t seen that change around abortion.
~ Elizabeth Nash of the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, as quoted by The Daily Beast, April 14
[Photo via guttmacher.org]
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.
“…we don’t often hear women’s stories about abortion. It is amazing to me that when women tell their abortion stories, we say ‘Oh my God, you’re so brave,’”
Having been a Life Minister and having volunteered at CPCs, I have heard a lot of stories of mothers who have aborted and mothers who have chosen life. Ms Nash is correct that many people refer to abortion-choosing mothers as “brave”, which I also find amazing. Women who abort often tell how they did so out of fear — fear of their boyfriend, fear of struggling finances, fear of hurting their career. PP preys upon those fears to make money and steers women clear of CPCs. Those who choose life don’t give in to the fears … I find those women to be the brave ones.
“We see a real change in how the LGBT community is viewed. We haven’t seen that change around abortion.”
I find it really strange that she thinks the two have anything to do with each other.
JDC, we’re chastised here on this site by some pro-lifers if we dare to relate anything LGBT to any pro-life related issue. So yeah, that is interesting.
I have heard many women’s stories about abortion. I think what she means is that not enough women are talking about their abortions like they were the best thing they ever did.
The women who regret their abortions? They want them to shut up and go away.
“I think what she means is that not enough women are talking about their abortions like they were the best thing they ever did.”
That does seem do be what she’s saying. I’m not sure she’s right to think that such stories would help the cause, though. If most of the public is at least some ambivalent or uncomfortable with abortion, they will likely not like seeing it treated as something so wonderful.
Right. I think they overestimate pro-choice sentiment in this country, honestly.
People like to say they’re for “choice” – but when it comes down to actually hearing about how someone killed their preborn child and that they are happy about it?
Cringeworthy. For most people, that is. (But obviously not for the majority of pro-choice commenters to this site, lol.)
“We see a real change in how the LGBT community is viewed. We haven’t seen that change around abortion.”
When folks get to know LGBT people better they see them for who they are…PEOPLE…children of the creator…like all of us…and most people will naturally want to be welcoming…even if what they may do seem strange or wrong to them…because LGBT people are people after all. Mature Christians, in particular, are commanded by God to love everybody…as He does.
When people get to know the procedure of abortion they begin recognize it for what it is as well…the exclusion of a class of people from the family of humanity. And the act itself is always a brutal rejection of persons…the most vulnerable of all persons. Even if a fence sitter on the subject doesn’t admit it so boldly…the idea of it is still floating around in the dark sea of their subconscious.
So then…no wonder you haven’t seen “that change around abortion” you’ve been waiting for.
Well said Tommy R.
Kel I think it’s a deliberate strategy for pro-choice activists to tie abortion to the LGBT movement, though the only thing they have in common is they are generally considered”left”. LGBT people and goals have had increased acceptance over the last forty years, abortion supporters wanna hitch their wagon to that rising acceptance if they can get low information people to have them tied together in their heads.
But anyway, that’s a lot of the reason I’m so insistent that pro-life arguments avoid tying abortion to LGBT (besides the fact I truly believe they aren’t related, regardless of any moral judgment). It’s just helping prochoicers grab on to the rising star of LGBT rights.
Right, it is a despair inspired “choice.” A dead end. You “take it like a man,” if your a feminist. No woman sees abortion as overcoming a challenge, its a necessary evil we must endure.. like ripping off a bandaid, or putting our pet to sleep.. or something… can’t really talk about it(with you)! Basically, we’re nobodies hero unless we congratulate each other. So we do.
No child is going to look to a post abortive woman and want to be one when they grow up. That’s not living the dream.
Its a fairly small circle.
In order to achieve what she is talking about, they are going to have to trample civil rights by destroying the rights of others in the manner the LGBT advocates have done to straight married couples.
AKA, they need to hijack another institution’s reputation for values in order to make the claim that their backwards notion of success in life is fruitful.
Then they can broaden their circle, an claim more territory.
It’s the whole might equals right attitude, which is culture of death, not one of life. As such it can only sustain for a few generations… like Rome’s embrace of Silphium, it will run it’s course into the culture’s extinction.
Hi Jack! Most notably, Dolce & Gabbana recently expressed their opposition to gay marriage and IVF. They based their arguments on the rights of the child to his or her biological parents. So, obviously, there are those who are LGBT persons themselves who see the connection that many of us do, and it centers around the fact that children become commodities and become subject to our own ideas of what “rights” are.
http://www.nj.com/parenting/index.ssf/2015/03/dolce_and_gabbana_oppose_ivf_and_gay_marriage_elton_john_responds_why_it_all_matters.html
While I would disagree with the tone in which D & G painted the children born from IVF, Elton John, predictably, comes back with a statement lauding IVF and how it has allowed people to fulfill their “dream of having children.” (Because hey, that’s all that really matters, is that we fulfill OUR dreams, consequences be damned.)
And IVF is certainly not just a “gay” issue, but in order for IVF to work for a gay couple, they would not only have to utilize IVF, but would have to find a surrogate. Therefore, the very process of IVF in gay relationships means that a child will be, by design, denied a home with a biological mother and father – or even one with an adoptive mother and father.
In other words, Elton John is focused on the perceived rights of anyone to have a child, and D & G are focused on the rights of children to two biological parents.
By the way, I grew up in a broken home, without my father, thanks to divorce. Growing up with questions about one’s absent parent just makes life harder, no matter how amazing and wonderful the present parent is. Those questions and doubts and feelings of abandonment and confusion do not just go away with time. It doesn’t make sense to me that we would purposely subject children to that.
As an aside, I’d really love to know why so many LGBT people are supportive of abortion.
Kel: They based their arguments on the rights of the child to his or her biological parents.
This is an interesting point. I know that recently, some states have changed the rules, allowing 18 year olds more information about their parents. There are obvious good reasons for that – medical information, for one thing. When it comes to balancing the parents’ right to privacy against the kids’ wishes to find them, that’s a tougher one.
Kel said, “As an aside, I’d really love to know why so many LGBT people are supportive of abortion.”
I can share the ideas of one lesbian I know who volunteers at PP: being in a heterosexual relationship that society thinks is admirable is like being pregnant, which society thinks is admirable. Both are examples of society sexually oppressing people who don’t want to be straight or pregnant.
Sadly, it appears to be an unhealthy view of the world that includes only oppressors and victims.
“So, obviously, there are those who are LGBT persons themselves who see the connection that many of us do, and it centers around the fact that children become commodities and become subject to our own ideas of what “rights” are.”
Sure, some LGBT people think they are related. I just disagree with them. And I still think pro-choicers are tying their cause to LGBT rights because they want to kind of cloak the reality of abortion with other, non life ending causes. “Left” causes are particularly prone to this, but “right” causes aren’t immune. I’ve seen pro-choicers often relate abortion to gun rights, because they are both about “self-protection” and freedom from government control. Ick, I know, but I’ve heard it often. I’m sure you wouldn’t argue that gun rights and abortion are related, LGBT causes should likewise be looked at on their own merit.
“And IVF is certainly not just a “gay” issue, but in order for IVF to work for a gay couple, they would not only have to utilize IVF, but would have to find a surrogate. Therefore, the very process of IVF in gay relationships means that a child will be, by design, denied a home with a biological mother and father – or even one with an adoptive mother and father.”
Eh, lesbians don’t need a surrogate. I know about the Dolce and Gabanna thing. I still, like I’ve said before, to act like gay couple compose even a tiny fraction of the millions of IVF seekers. And if we’re banning IVF for only gay people, or whatever, we still have tons of embryos being discarded every year, surrogates being used, etc. Even if zero LGBT people obtained IVF, it wouldn’t even make a dent. I really think it’s actually damaging to constantly bring up IVF as related to LGBT and not focus on the HUGE issue of straight couples doing it. Putting aside the biological mother or father deprivation, I think we can all agree that stopping the kids from being discarded before they even make it to a womb takes priority over that. Which is why I personally believe we do ourselves a deep disservice by letting the conversation focus on LGBT. It ALWAYS turns into arguments about homosexuality itself, instead of the issue of babies. I just think homosexuality is far, far too contentious to prevent it from taking center stage in every argument it’s brought up.
“I grew up in a broken home, without my father, thanks to divorce. Growing up with questions about one’s absent parent just makes life harder, no matter how amazing and wonderful the present parent is. Those questions and doubts and feelings of abandonment and confusion do not just go away with time. It doesn’t make sense to me that we would purposely subject children to that.”
Yeah, I get you. I still think considering all but like 1% of father or mother deprived children get that way from divorce or (naturally conceived) single parenthood, that it’s really a red herring to act like LGBT comprises any significant amount of these problems. And again, the important thing is the kids, who are being harmed by the millions by divorce and single parenthood, and focusing on the tiniest percentage of these houses missing a father and mother, is doing those kids a grave disservice and not helping anything.
“As an aside, I’d really love to know why so many LGBT people are supportive of abortion.”
They are both leftist, non-religious causes that people group together, erroneously or not. Same reasons atheists tend pro-choice. It’s not like the right is in any way welcoming to LGBT people, the GOP has shot themselves in the foot there. It’s dumb to not think things through, but humans are humans, and if they see one side of the political divide in this country as very opposed to their interests and unwelcoming, they will gravitate to the other side. You gotta understand that many see the right as genuinely dangerous to their safety and civil rights. But anyway, plenty of LGBT people are pro-life.
EricTL you have a point with the oppressor vs victims too, like I’m alluding to, if they see the GOP and the right wing as dangerous and oppressive, obviously they’ll tend to see left causes as correct and safe.
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“We see a real change in how the LGBT community is viewed. We haven’t seen that change around abortion.”
Well maybe that’s because LGBT people aren’t killing babies!
ya, think?
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