(Prolifer)ations 4-3-12
by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli
We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.
- Abolitionist Society of OK examines the implications behind the popular pro-choice t-shirt meme, “If the fetus you save is gay, will you still fight for its rights?” Actually, pro-lifers have already answered that question, which is, “Of course.” The real question is how would pro-choicers respond?
- Abortion Pill Risks reports on the questions surrounding the first known RU-486 chemical abortion pill death in Australia, which happened two years ago and has just recently made public.
- Bryan Kemper compares his experiences of participating in both pro-choice and pro-life marches in Belgium last month. He notices stark contrasts among the crowd sizes, ages, and demeanor:
I wanted to understand and experience what makes each group come out and walk. In one case it is a fear of losing what they think is so important to women and in the other case it is a hope of ending what we know is destroying women and true women’s rights.
- Mommy Life reprints an American Spectator article that investigates the nearly $1M compensation and fringe benefits of Sister Carol Keehan (pictured left), ally of the pro-abortion Obama Administration and HHS against her own Catholic Church.
- Coming Home shares HSLDA president Michael Farris’ shocking “I can’t believe this happened in America” story about a family who came face to face with an unreasonable and controlling medical bureaucracy upon the birth of their child.
- Generations for Life encourages atheists and people of diverse faiths to band together for the cause of life:
And so I encourage pro-lifers of all faiths to be open to one another in seeing our belief not merely as a Christian movement but a moral one. Though we may disagree with others on our belief in God, having such a diverse pro-life movement can only be an asset to us.
- Big Blue Wave believes the pro-life movement needs to address the need to be “open to life” (anti-contraception) as part of being pro-life:
There are lots of people in favour of fetal rights who contracept. They don’t see the connection between sexuality and openness to life. They wouldn’t dream of killing their unborn child, but their lifestyles and their thinking are built on the idea of having children only when they want and under the desired circumstances. If people who support our cause can’t see the problem with that, how do we expect to change the culture?…This is something we have to tackle as a pro-life movement. Not only the morality part of it– but the lifestyle part– how do you convince people to change their lives so that being open to life isn’t some kind of moralistic burden, but actually a source of fulfillment and happiness?
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 like how we have one article touting acceptance of differences within our movement, and then end it with an article about how everybody all the time has to be super-stoked/ready/willing/able to be a parent (again), contraception be damned, or else they are “bad” Pro-Lifers.
I think I’m gonna go with the first one. I like the “acceptance” thing.
This is something we have to tackle as a pro-life movement. Not only the morality part of it– but the lifestyle part– how do you convince people to change their lives so that being open to life isn’t some kind of moralistic burden, but actually a source of fulfillment and happiness?
We don’t have to “tackle” jack, lady. Not everyone wants THAT lifestyle, not everyone needs THAT lifestyle, and not everyone can handle THAT lifestyle. You don’t get to tell other people how to “change their lives”, because they know what they can handle and what they cannot. It should be enough for you that they ARE open to life if it happens! We don’t have to pretend that every single pregnancy is going to occur under circumstances that make parents want to dance in the streets. Some people are about to lose their homes. Some people can’t afford the gas bill to-and-from work AND the groceries. If they experience an unexpected pregnancy in that time, we’ll be around to help them be the parent(s) that that new family member deserves, but we also can’t act so callous as to think that everyone in the world has to be happy about every single pregnancy, ever.
So, MY Pro-Life Movement is doing just fine in that department, no change needed. Thank you for your concern, though.
Back away from the X. I’m not going to touch this one with you, X. We’ve been down that road and my limp is just about gone. LOL
Sister Carol sure is aggravating the heck outta me though. I’d like to have a sit-down dinner with her. She can pay.
Hehehe. That’s the acceptance thing I love so much, Prax! You get it. That’s why I like you. ;P
Apparently, inflation has gotten so bad that 30 silver pieces these days will net you almost $1 million.
re: “If the fetus you save…”
This argument always bugs me, since it carries the implied message that “Since large numbers of gays are no doubt killed in abortion, those who oppose gay marriage should support abortion, since that will make their jobs easier.” Which is…stupendously problematic, to say the least.
I usually respond to this comment with, “If the child I save is gay, he will also be alive.” After all, if an unborn child is gay, and if that child is at risk of being aborted, shouldn’t the first goal of those who support gays be to make sure that gays are alive to be supported?
“If the fetus you save is gay, will you still fight for its rights?”
If the fetus you declare “unwanted” is gay, will you still fight to kill him/her?
The Coming Home story is just unbelievable. OMGosh. “I can’t believe this happened in America” is right.
This if the fetus is gay argument is so stupid. I mean even those in the movement who oppose homosexuality don’t literally want to kill gays, as far as I know.
JDC, exactly!! It’s true that some pro-lifers are also supporters of traditional marriage, but supporting traditional marriage is NOT in conflict with being pro-life. The exception that many of us rail against among our fellow pro-lifers is the ‘rape and incest’ exception. Jimmy Carter was recently quoted on Jill’s blog about that. So sad. All babies deserve the same chance to live their own lives.
You see, being pro-life is about allowing babies to develop naturally without violent, deadly interference. A baby is just a little baby. Who cares what color her skin is or what she’ll become when she’s a grown up? Abortion advocates DON’T care about a child’s potential to live, they only care about a child’s potential to die.
If the fetus is a proabort, I will still fight for its right to be born alive.
“If the fetus you save is gay, will you still fight for its rights?”
Seems a bit counterproductive for someone who supports abortion to say this, doesn’t it? I mean, there’s a sort of tacit acknowledement there that prolifers are fighting for a human being’s rights. I guess the best comeback would be to pose something like the question that was asked above, ie, “Yes, I’d fight for any human being’s rights. Why wouldn’t you?”
Joanne, I don’t think anyone’s said it better than that. I’ll definitely be using that line.
(Well, Jesus warned us that there would be a price to pay…)
I guess if you like, Praxedes, you can sit back and watch the fireworks. This might get a little heated, but as with all aspects of the pro-life movement, if there is to be a return to a proper respect for life and sexuality, there is no room for compromise.
Just as Pope Paul VI warned in Humanae Vitae back in 1968, the increased use of contraceptives would soon be followed by increased abortion, as they stem from one and the same mentality; namely, that control belongs not to God but to ourselves, regardless of how ineffective our efforts may be.
As surprising as it may be, I truly wish that he had been wrong.
Also, as unsurprising as it hopefully is, I do not agree with much of what Xalisae said (and, last I heard, what Jill believes).
“an article about how everybody all the time has to be super-stoked/ready/willing/able to be a parent (again), contraception be damned, or else they are “bad” Pro-Lifers”
We don’t view you as bad pro-lifers, just as we don’t view pro-aborts as bad people. Pro-aborts have been greatly deceived, from either within or without. We believe you have clearer vision than them, but still clouded. Nothing personal, and no offense intended, but I wanted to be clear about that.
“Not everyone wants THAT lifestyle,”
And what exactly is THAT lifestyle? Accepting sexuality for all it is? Accepting one’s sexual partner for all that he/she is, fertility included, isntead of requiring him/her to leave that aside?
Most people don’t always want to do what is right, but that does absolutely nothing to lessen their responsibility to do it anyway. Want is irrelevent as to whether or not something should be done.
“not everyone needs THAT lifestyle,”
One of the chief contributors to abortion is the failed notion of the feasibility of the separation of acts from consequences. Abortion is one of many logical ends to this and is rightly reviled by all who see it for what it is. What most don’t see, unfortunately, is its inherent parallel in contraception, and thus the revulsion against this aspect is not as widespread. Abortion makes clear to all who know it the importance of a realistic outlook on life, especially with regards to sexuality; once the parallel becomes obvious, contraception is no different.
“and not everyone can handle THAT lifestyle.”
When people can’t control themselves and their sexual urges, when they feel that they can’t live without sex (or at least not fulfillingly so), there are bigger problems to address.
As much as I’d like to say otherwise, I’ve found that in most instances of this, it’s not so much a case of “can’t” as it is “won’t”. Granted, there are sacrifices involved, sometimes very difficult ones, but so it is with anything worthwhile. Where people spend their time, who they spend it with, what shows they watch on TV (if any), and every other aspect of their lifestyles either help or hinder this. We all choose throughout our day-to-day lives whether to make a chaste life feasible.
“You don’t get to tell other people how to “change their lives”, because they know what they can handle and what they cannot.”
On the contrary, we can and we do. We tell pro-aborts all the time to change their lives or at least their tone (one step at a time, if necessary). Xalisae, you know as well as I do that one of the more common reasons given for abortions is because the mother feels she isn’t ready for a child, that she cannot handle being a mother, or another variation of this. All very valid concerns, as motherhood is no picnic by any stretch of the imagination, but all ultimately irrelevent to whether or not abortion is acceptable.
“It should be enough for you that they ARE open to life if it happens!”
It’s a good start, no argument there, but it’s by no means the end goal.
“We don’t have to pretend that every single pregnancy is going to occur under circumstances that make parents want to dance in the streets. Some people are about to lose their homes. Some people can’t afford the gas bill to-and-from work AND the groceries. If they experience an unexpected pregnancy in that time, we’ll be around to help them be the parent(s) that that new family member deserves, but we also can’t act so callous as to think that everyone in the world has to be happy about every single pregnancy, ever.”
Do you honestly think this was the intended meaning? We’re pro-life in a culture of death, Xalisae, we’re not stupid. One of the most important things any frontline pro-lifer must be aware of is that crisis pregnancies happen and must be addressed as such. However, when one’s finances are in serious jeopardy, common sense dictates that one does not continue gambling in the hopes that nothing unexpected will happen.
“So, MY Pro-Life Movement is doing just fine in that department, no change needed. Thank you for your concern, though.”
And YOUR movement will fall, as have all others who have accepted such fundamental half-measures. Thank you for your support until then, though.
The true pro-life movement, however, will continue long afterwards doing what we’ve always done; give people the truth, no matter how unpopular it may be.
I don’t want to be your enemy, Xalisae (and others here who would side with her on this issue), but I will not pretend for one moment that contraception used as such is anything less than an inherently and deeply destructive agent.
Lastly (and this may give you an incredible urge to strangle me), you should re-read your first comment and compare it to the arguments commonly put forth by pro-aborts to defend abortion. This is not meant to accuse you of malicious intent, just to draw your attention to a glaring red flag. It would be nice if the similarities were entirely coincidental, but experience with many other people has taught me otherwise.
I will pray for us all, Xalisae, as I hope others here do.
P.S.: in case anyone’s wondering, I too see the hypothetically-homosexual unborn child as a person deserving the same rights as anyone else. Honestly, it’s nothing more than an attempt to trap us in a supposed corner constructed by our purported hatred of homosexuals. Note to pro-aborts: conjecture built upon illusion inspired by misrepresentation makes for interesting party games, not sound social policy.
Xalisae, I am one of the conservative Christians who have no problems with non-abortifacient contraception. There are a lot of us out here! Mr. Courtnay and I were wildly open to life, we were blessed by that life, and now we do not want any more children. Some will call us callous. I call us wise. There are certainly many flavors of the prolife movement; I say we embrace them all!
“It should be enough for you that they ARE open to life if it happens!”
It’s a good start, no argument there, but it’s by no means the end goal.
Well, when everyone IS open to life if it happens, and the law is changed to reflect that, I’ll be getting off of this little carnival ride, so,
Thank you for your support until then, though.
You’re quite welcome. At least by the time gestating human lives are protected by law, I’ll have withstood enough condescension to last my entire lifetime, from both sides.
As if I haven’t heard this all before. *yawn*
“People who contracept are like animals who can’t control themselves, blah blah blah. Contraception is the same as abortion, blah blah blah.” 9_9
Thank you, Courtnay. I hope you and Mr. Courtnay are doing well!