Weekend question: Which did the abortion vote stunt help more, the pro-life or pro-choice movement?
As most know, a couple named Pete and Alisha Arnold, pictured right, have received notoriety for launching BirthorNot.com.
The 2 claimed a tally of reader votes received by December 7 would determine whether they birthed or aborted their baby. Read more of the backstory here.
I received an interesting question from a reporter, wondering whether I thought over the long haul this now-known-to-be stunt would help the pro-life movement or pro-choice movement.
What do you think?
Nov.27, 2010 10:19 am |
Weekend question |
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.
I was talking with Bryan Kemper about this, and we agreed that this stunt would hurt the pro-life cause. People won’t take us as seriously. Especially when the couple kept denying that it was a hoax when directly asked about it. Unbelievable.
I believe they really thought it would be a good thing for the pro-life movement, but I think they were gravely mistaken. What did pro-lifers gain? Some people saw a late-term ultrasound pic? Just about everybody has already.
We’ll definitely host a discussion on our vodcast about this. (http://ProLifePodcast.net)
I don’t know what side it helped. Maybe the pro abortion side because the pro abortion votes where the highest on the poll they took. It’s like what happens in big cities like NYC or LA when someone is trying to commit suicide by jumping off a tall building, there are always going to be sick people on the street, yelling “jump”! What is disturbing is how a serious issue like abortion has been turned into a reality show with us as the judges. Our country is in serious moral decay. That woman is…I can’t even write anymore out of disgust.
Neither, I think. Everyone I’ve heard talking about it just seems disgusted by the whole thing.
Perhaps the episode will have the effect of sending out alarms as to how crass we have become. It really is quite pathetic.
We will be viewed as crazies because of this fringe stunt. It will hurt us but hardly stop us! :)
I don’t think this will hurt the prolife cause at all. What it did do, was bring to the forefront how casually abortion is thought about by this couple. He is supposed to be prolife, she prochoice.. and the life of the baby is put up to a public vote because they can’t make a decision for themselves? I think the vote, currently almost 78% abort, is the voters way of saying that this couple doesn’t deserve to be parents.
I don’t think it will hurt or help anyone. One’s pro-life the other is pro-choice, both are completely out of their minds and I don’t know that they’re being viewed as pro-life or pro-choice crazies but just crazy people in general. I agree with Gina…..they’ve brought both sides together in mutual disgust.
I think it’s helpful – because everyone is so disgusted. It provides an opportunity for discussing sexual responsibility and outcomes and in light of their opposing ideas, it shows men and women need to have a real, genuine, intimate heart to heart discussion before intercourse.
It also reveals the pro-choice lie that it’s “personal”. If abortion were really about personal choice and responsibility, they shouldn’t care one wit about how she makes her own decision: it’s hers to make any way she sees fit. That they care indicates “choice” is about holding power (not giving it away) – which is why they’re so upset. They see “choice” as a sacrosanct devotion to absolute power over life and death. It’s the object of their religious devotion. These two have been heretical-blasphemous.
Truth is revealed – even when they do everything in their power to cover it up.
There are consequences to sex which transcend the physical act.
Very simply, people who normally don’t have abortion on their personal radar are talking about abortion and that’s always a good thing. As Chris mentioned, everyone is disgusted. Abortion should have that effect on us! I think the pro-lifers and the unborn come out ahead this time.
I don’t think it will help or hurt anyone. It’s just another case of crazy people doing crazy things, which happens all the time.
(Mods, I’d like to make an official declaration that I am changing my nickname on this blog from Keli Hu to Alice. There’s already a Kel and a Kelli, so I’d like to go with something different from those.)
Is there anyone, pro-life or pro-choice, that didn’t need to take a shower after reading about these two coconuts? Even the pro-aborts who comment here had deeply personal reasons for having aborted their babies, and are in an entirely different category than these two slobs, who are simply social pariahs.
I doubt that they are genuinely pro-life, as we work to witness the sanctity of each individual human life, and never treat the individual in such a flippant manner. Trying to engage in paradoxical praxis is a tricky business and best left to the few who can pull it off. I’ve never had much luck with it, and admire those who do.
In the long run, all discussion will lead to helping pre-born babies.
If it’s true that it’s a woman’s ‘right’ then why are the pro-aborts themselves so disgusted? If a woman can flip a coin to decide, what’s their problem with it? They want abortion from conception through viability. Oh, but wait, they also want to decide who is fit and who is not fit to parent. I have heard more than my fair share of pro-aborts declaring who should have an abortion, but they usually phrase it: ‘she should not be having that baby.’ So they reveal how judgmental they truly are. It’s not a private decision at all. In my own personal life I have had to listen to the disgusting pro-aborts gossiping about who should or shouldn’t parent. They do not really believe it’s a woman’s private choice.
When pro-aborts try to defend abortion, sooner or later biology and science undeniably supports the side of life. Sooner or later, their own arguments deteriorate into shrillness. So, I say, let the public debate continue. The truth comes out eventually. Truth and life will win.
Mods, I’d like to make an official declaration that I am changing my nickname on this blog from Keli Hu to Alice.
Ok, thanks!! Noted. :)
As they say in the advertising business, “there is no such thing as bad free press.” This elevated both camps, but we may never know what impact it will have in the long run.
I feel the real victim here is Baby Wiggles. What will they say to him when he learns of their flippant internet stunt?
These two are a reflection of our society. It is a sad state we are in, but no one said it would be easy.
Too bad she didn’t think of what may happen to her job when they conjured this up, but it also gives us a window to her world of not thinking about the long term effects of their actions.
The whole thing is disgusting and it did not edify the discussion on either side. He is pro life and she is pro choice. I think the high numbers voting for abortion were voting against them as parents. They are disgusting and it shows just how hard up we as a nation are for entertainment.
I believe this couple once again makes prolifers look like lunatics.
I didn’t vote on their site because I wanted nothing to do with these losers. Both of them should be extremely ashamed of themselves and IMO need intense counselling.
Most all stories help whomever runs the media. Right now most media is pro-abortion so most all stories help them. That is why we need media friends to win.
Hi angel,
An excellent point. They make me think of this couple that said the the woman would agree to perform a certain sex act with the man if they got a designated number of hits on their website. Grow up.
What happened to abortion being a personal, private, and painful choice that the PC crowd has long argued that it is?
I don’t think it will help or hurt anyone. It’s just another case of crazy people doing crazy things, which happens all the time.
I agree. Most people didn’t even hear about this. I doubt if it will sway people’s minds on the issue one way or the other.