15 reasons why pro-choicers think pro-lifers are crushing them
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade in January 2013, Time magazine published a surprising and iconic cover story about how the pro-choice side has been losing ever since it thought it won in 1973. The reasons Time listed were spot on:
- Pro-life laws
- Public sentiment
- Pro-abortion generational in-fighting
- Playing defense (defending the status quo)
- Science
- Stigma
- Aging abortionists
Indeed, abortion advocates have been in an admitted state of panic for quite some time over building pro-life momentum.
But within the past several days two abortion advocates have separately admitted their side is losing…
- “It’s not just Hobby Lobby: the pro-life movement is winning” ~Sarah Kliff, formerly of the Washington Post, now senior editor at Vox.com
- “Ten reasons women are losing while gays keep winning” ~Dr. Jay Michaelson at The Daily Beast.
Other recent abortion articles have hit on the same theme…
- “How bad medicine is sweeping the country, one state at a time” ~Tara Culp-Ressler at Think Progress
- “Pro-life movement winning the battle over abortion, birth control accessibility” ~Jessica VanEgeren at The Cap Times
Here are 15 reasons why abortion proponents think pro-lifers are crushing them, as lifted from the aforementioned abortion articles. A couple were included in Time’s list, but most are in addition:
- Obama’s election and reelection prompted pro-life groups to focus on state avenues to pass legislation rather than federal.
- Due to the Republican wave of 2010, in part in response to Obama’s election in 2008, there has indeed been a huge spike in pro-life laws passed on the state level - 226 since 2011, more than the entire previous three decades combined.
- The convoluted passage of Obamacare in 2010 was “rocket fuel” to the pro-life movement, writes Kliff, quoting Americans United for Life’s Charmaine Yoest, which led to the introduction of some of those bills.
- A profusion of abortion clinic closures, 81 in 2013 alone, according to Operation Rescue. The number of abortion clinics has decreased by 73% to 759 from a high of 2,176 in 1991.
- Moves to defund Planned Parenthood.
- The Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision.
- The Supreme Court’s buffer zone decision.
- The abortion lobby’s inability to reframe the debate into one about discrimination. “Unfortunately, even the name ‘pro-choice’ reinforces that the movement is about acts and not identity,” writes Michaelson.
- The abortion lobby’s inability to reframe the issue into one all can relate to.
- The abortion lobby’s shortage of poster children. Sandra Fluke, for instance, was a dud.
- Their opponents (us!) are “sophisticated… smart and methodical,” according to Michaelson.
- Even liberals as a political body aren’t united in support of abortion, because as Michaelson admits, “Abortion is a kind of murder.” Ew.
No Fortune 500 corporations are lining up to support abortion, as they are with the homosexual lobby, which would bring “movement dollars and public awareness,” writes Michaelson.- “Feminism has an image problem,” writes Michaelson.
- Religion: “Secular arguments about the separation of church and state may play well to the base,” writes Michaelson. ”But they don’t move the middle.”
In a nutshell, quoting VanEgeren:
Whether it’s through hundreds of laws passed at the state level or the recent Hobby Lobby decision that allows companies to deny birth control coverage to employees on religious grounds, the pro-life movement is on a winning streak over access to abortions and birth control.
“It’s kind of like waiting for the other shoe to drop,” said Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager with the Guttmacher Institute, a think-tank focused on sexual and reproductive health policy. “I’m not entirely sure what will happen next.”
Well, here’s another shoe, impossible for abortion proponents to fill. Quoting Sarah Weddington (pictured right), the lawyer who successfully persuaded the Supreme Court in Roe v Wade, speaking at an event on July 12, via KnoxNews.com:
“Today, the young people are so much further (along) than I was at their age,” she said. “They speak more languages. They go on more trips. They have to show me how to use my iPhone … but one of the things we haven’t quite managed to do is to give them the same burning motivation to change things that we believe are wrong in the way that we did.”
In other words, the pro-choice crowd has no rear guard. They killed them.
[Top photo via The Cap Times; non-feminist photo via BuzzFeed (warning: vulgarity); bottom photo via Vox]
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.
Im sad to say that I dont see how were winning when children have been dying for 40 years. We wont win until we make abortion unthinkable. We have a lot of minds to change.
“Im sad to say that I dont see how were winning when children have been dying for 40 years.”
I see your point, but on the other hand they have been dying at a decreasing rate for several years now. That’s at least a step in the right direction if not a victory.
(Godwin’s Law warning)
I’d liken feminism’s “image problem” to the swastika. Originally, the swastika was nothing more than a symbol of good luck used by various cultures. However, because the Nazis adopted it, no self-respecting person will even think about using it for any reason. Likewise, a feminist (by definition) is supposed to be someone that thinks equality for women is a prima facie good. But you have the most famous feminist in the world telling us that nobody can call herself a feminist unless she supports abortion on demand, along with (mainly white, middle-class) feminists that compare a man asking out a woman more than once (or even exactly once, if she isn’t showing clear signs of interest) to a rapist. When the label becomes associated with such absurdity, it isn’t hard to see why so many self-respecting people will distance themselves from it.
I think one thing that has worked in our favor is the Pregnancy Resource Centers. Despite the attempts of NARAL, etc. and others to shut them down they are prospering. The lawsuits in Austin, San Francisco, and Maryland against PRCs failed miserably and made them look mean-spirited and petty. In the Maryland case I believe they even had to pay court costs. But they are not giving up. Thraborts have even encouraged their supporters to picket the PRCs. What are their signs going to say — “these centers help women?”
The Culture of Death is a parasite.
Contraception, abortion, divorce, child-free life-stylists…. these do not pass on their culture to a new generation that thrives and multiplies. The Culture of Death must steal children away from thriving families. They must constantly proselytize for new believers.
Meanwhile…. the Culture of Life is a living organism. It has some ability to develop immunity to long-lasting threats. In simple terms: We parents teach our children to avoid the mistakes that we made when we were young. We encourage our two kids to have larger families. The brave women of Silent No More share their stories with the next generation about the suffering that abortion causes. And so on….
This is why the March For Life draws a half-million happy young people, year after year, with more marches growing around the country — while the Culture of Death cannot manage a single rally of more than a few thousand sour-pusses.
These demographics measure out through society. All the parasites can do is spew commentary on MSNBC and write articles like the ones above, looking for something to capture the imagination of some new recruits.
Another thing that did not help the choicers was trying to trivialize the whole matter. They went from saying it was something that women do not take lightly to acting like it was of no more consequence than getting a tooth pulled and even kinda funny. Most people find the latter viewpoint disturbing. Remember Emily Letts? Even some hard core pro-aborts were upset over her flippant attitude toward her (alleged) abortion. You know, when Obvious Child came out the media couldn’t stop gushing over it. Now that its tanked all I hear are . . . Crickets.
Del, I don’t think wanting to be child free is a bad thing. My sister never wanted children. She admits she is self centered and inpatient and she’s right. She is basically a nice person and I love her dearly, but she is definitely not parent material.
“the March For Life draws a half-million happy young people”
Yes! Yesterday I saw a fresh-faced smiling young couple walking along a busy highway with large words written in black on their Tshirts. The shirts said “PRO LIFE.” I’ve never seen this in my lifetime and am ashamed that I never did this in my lifetime.
Thank you young people! You are the Prolife Generation!
Hi phillymiss,
I couldn’t agree more. Everyone is NOT parent material. If a person acknowledges this fact, they get no argument from me.
Timely post and all the news tonight is about the introduced legislation put out by the alarmed abortion industry via their favorite legislators. Keep up the heat….
“feminists that compare a man asking out a woman more than once (or even exactly once, if she isn’t showing clear signs of interest) to a rapist.”
Yup. And it makes me rage. Trivializing rape is one of the worst things happening in the modern feminist movement. Rape is an absolutely devastating thing to happen to someone and can cause you life-long scars, and comparing it to minor miscommunications, rude behavior, and things that aren’t even actually wrong is just disgusting to me. I think it should offend anyone who’s actually been raped.
But anyway, it’s sad because feminism as the general concept and how it should be ideally is awesome and amazing. What’s going on now is just ridiculous. I don’t know how it turned purely into abortion on demand and calling things “eye rape” but that’s certainly where the loudest voices are.
Hello DLPL,
I couldn’t agree more about this trivializing of rape. It enrages me. Especially after reading that one of the escaped victims of Boko Haram, a schoolgirl, endured 15 rapes in one day. Yeah ladies, snivel and whine to her how “traumatized” you are because some man asked you out more than one.
At the same time, let some man support the feminist agenda and the feminists will happily turn a blind eye to his abuse of women. Can we say Bill Clinton?
It’s all evidenced by the rhetoric. They can barely even mention abortion, never veer away from the “hard cases,” and they are desperately trying to drag contraceptives into the fight to the point of absolutely buffoonery (Hobby Lobby case). The only exception is those hardcore types who talk about the need to destigmatize abortion. Those true believers see the handwriting on the wall, but taking life will always have a stigma though, because it’s wrong of course!
A healthy couple who choose to be “child-free” is just a more extreme version of the healthy couple who choose to have only two kids. We need to see contraception and its primary role in the Culture of Death, and own it if necessary.
We may know and love some self-centered persons who would probably be “bad parents” — but we should also pity them. The solution for such couples is not to avoid having children. We should encourage them to stop being selfish, and learn how to love and be happy and self-giving. This is why children are such a gift…. they show us true happiness.
Praxedes says:
July 15, 2014 at 8:51 pm
“the March For Life draws a half-million happy young people”
Yes! Yesterday I saw a fresh-faced smiling young couple walking along a busy highway with large words written in black on their Tshirts. The shirts said “PRO LIFE.”
I saw this too! On a highway outside of Madison, WI. A young man with a bright yellow T-shirt and PRO-LIFE in large letters. Not one of the usual faces on the sidewalk.
Was there a coordinated effort that we don’t know about?
I caught half a spot on Catholic radio, someone talking about walking in PRO-LIFE T-shirts.
The couple I saw had bright green Tshirts, Del, and were about an hour out of Madison.
I haven’t heard of any walk going on around Madison but it sure was nice to see.
Maybe I will order some of these shirts and pass them out to the young people in my area who would be interested in wearing them.
If it’s true that mere passage of laws won’t affect the abortion culture until there’s a change of heart in the majority of PEOPLE, then surely one of the most important causes of pro-life success has been sophisticated advertising by the Vitae Caring Foundation http://www.vitaefoundation.org/ad-portfolio backed by Madison-Avenue type consumer psychology & marketing studies. From the time they began nearly 20 years ago, abortion rates were reduced by up to 38% in markets that ran ads showing pro-life women as independent, successful yet compassionate, like “Lifesaver” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RGraok6haU (Woman firefighter handing a child she just saved to the Mom.) “Being alive today has special meaning–for both of us. There have been times when I almost didn’t make it. But the one time I had the most to lose, was before I was even born. My Mom was young, single, no money. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for her to give me a chance. But today, I know she’d be very proud, that her decision saved more than one life.”
Praxedes says:
The couple I saw had bright green Tshirts, Del, and were about an hour out of Madison.
My young man was on Hwy 14, between Cross Plains and Madison. Monday.
I am rather severely color-blind, so the bright shirt may have been neon green rather than yellow. 20-something, with a mop of dark hair and mustache.
“If it’s true that mere passage of laws won’t affect the abortion culture until there’s a change of heart”
I don’t believe this is true. The mere passage of laws significantly increased abortions and jailing a few abortionists would send a pretty clear message that abortion is the killing of innocent humans.
We don’t wait until arsonists, thieves, and rapists and their supporters have a change of heart before we hold them accountable. We shouldn’t wait with murderers either.
Crossroads was founded in 1995 by Steve Sanborn, a student at Franciscan University as a response to John Paul II’s call to the youth of the world to take an active role in the pro-life movement in order to establish a Culture of Life. An integral part of Crossroads is our yearly pro-life pilgrimages across the United States. Each summer, young adults walk on four simultaneous pro-life walks across America from Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles to Washington, D.C..
http://www.crossroadswalk.org/
The prolife movement is always bigger than you think it is.
I was lucky enough to run into the Crossroads group at a Kroger in Stuebenville last year. They let me buy their groceries fir them but refused to add an special treat for themselves when I suggested it. They are an amazing team of young adults doing amazing work in the communities they touch along their journey.
I also think the pro-abortion group is losing because there is a generation of kids running around with ultrasound pictures of themselves. You can’t deny reality/science :)
“We may know and love some self-centered persons who would probably be “bad parents” — but we should also pity them. The solution for such couples is not to avoid having children. We should encourage them to stop being selfish, and learn how to love and be happy and self-giving. This is why children are such a gift…. they show us true happiness.”
Okay, I’ll give you my mother’s phone number and you can tell her how having me showed her true happiness and it was definitely great and healing for her to have me. It will go over great. I’m sorry Del but stuff like this infuriates me. Some people are simply not equipped for parenthood and even with help a lot of them will never be. Haven’t you ever talked to someone who was severely abused as a kid? I don’t think anyone who actually knew my parents well or the parents of a lot of the street kids I was around as a teen could ever say the things you’re saying. Some people are just too dangerous to have children. I don’t think they are evil, necessarily, or bad people necessarily, but encouraging EVERYONE to have kids is the wrong way to go.
Now a lot of the neglect and more “minor” abuse I’ve seen, particularly in low income neighborhoods where there’s a cycle of poverty and violence, could probably be helped a lot with education, support, and better prospects for life, but there are still those who will hurt their kids regardless and shouldn’t have them.
But anyway, on topic, I love that the studies I’ve read put my generation and younger at more socially liberal but STILL anti-abortion at greater rates than the last couple generations. I think that’s the most important part of the pro-life movement. In 20 to 30 years it’s our generation making the laws (Boomers and Gen X out!) and I see even greater strides being made for unborn rights without the social conservationism that I think is counter-productive. True liberals want to protect and defend all life, and it seems we got a huge crop of true liberals in the under 30 generations.
“I don’t believe this is true. The mere passage of laws significantly increased abortions and jailing a few abortionists would send a pretty clear message that abortion is the killing of innocent humans.”
I don’t think it’s either/or. I think the passage of such laws would indicate an even more significant proportion of the population opposing abortion and recognizing it kills human beings.
DLPL, Del was referring to healthy couples who choose to remain childless. From what you’ve described, your parents were not in the ballpark of healthy. Heck, they were not even in the parking lot.
“and recognizing it kills human beings”
Abortionists have been admitting for years they realize abortion kills humans. It’s time to hold them accountable for what they readily admit they do.
“Abortionists have been admitting for years they realize abortion kills humans. It’s time to hold them accountable for what they readily admit they do.”
I agree, but I think the point I was trying to make is that it requires culture change. Pro-lifers know abortionists know what’s up, the culture in general is only halfway (or so) there. I think the passage of laws is an indication of the culture change, they are linked pretty closely.
“DLPL, Del was referring to healthy couples who choose to remain childless. From what you’ve described, your parents were not in the ballpark of healthy. Heck, they were not even in the parking lot.”
Well, I still hear from some people that all parents like mine needed was IDK the Bible or something. I find it really annoying. People brush off that some people are simply not equipped for parenthood. And I really don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong for even healthy people to forgo having kids. What if they are being called for something else? I don’t think everyone is cut out for parenting even if they aren’t outright abusive, some people have strengths in different areas and it’s not always selfishness that causes them to forgo having kids.
“What if they are being called for something else?”
What if? Then they should remain unmarried and childless and do whatever it is they are called to do.
“the culture in general is only halfway (or so) there”
The culture will catch up real fast once abortion becomes illegal.
the studies I’ve read put my generation and younger at more socially liberal but STILL anti-abortion at greater rates than the last couple generations. I think that’s the most important part of the pro-life movement. In 20 to 30 years it’s our generation making the laws (Boomers and Gen X out!) and I see even greater strides being made for unborn rights without the social conservationism that I think is counter-productive. True liberals want to protect and defend all life, and it seems we got a huge crop of true liberals in the under 30 generations.
Jack, the country as a whole has been split on the issue, for a long time. Really, for the past 16 years, it’s been close enough to 50/50 that any little “lean” one way or the other doesn’t matter much.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/170249/split-abortion-pro-choice-pro-life.aspx
If there is a real “tendency,” within the numbers, it’s for men and older people to be pro-life, and for women and younger people to be pro-choice, and even there, we are not talking about huge disparities.
You mention “the social conservationism that I think is counter-productive.” I agree, and this is a different thing than the pro-life/pro-choice matter. However, in the big picture, I think they will stay related. Republicans have really been painting themselves into a corner on gay and immigration issues, and in the long run it’s Presidents and Supreme Courts that really make the deal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/30/style/surprise-mom-i-m-against-abortion.html
And the split between men and women is tiny in the US (like you kinda got at) but it’s the opposite way in the UK for some reason. But anyway, there’s certainly a trend for younger people to be otherwise socially liberal but anti-abortion. I’m not just wishful thinking!
“What if? Then they should remain unmarried and childless and do whatever it is they are called to do.”
That’s your opinion (and it’s Catholic doctrine I think?). I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with people being married, forgoing children, and doing other things with their life that they feel called to.
“What if they are being called for something else?”
then
“and doing other things with their life that they feel called to.”
There’s those feelings again. Maybe your parents felt called to have children and never felt like they were doing anything wrong in the way they raised you.
“and it’s Catholic doctrine I think?”
I think you KNOW it’s Catholic doctrine. But that’s just my opinion. ;)
Back to the topic at hand: Prochoicers think prolifers are crushing them. For once, I think they are right.
“Maybe your parents felt called to have children and never felt like they were doing anything wrong in the way they raised you.”
Wow. Thanks for that I guess.
I’m sorry if I offended you, I just disagree. I don’t really see anything wrong with being married but not having children.
I agree with the pro-choicers too, they are losing.
You’re welcome. No offense taken.
But anyway if we’re going by your opinion then my parents were totally in the right to have a bunch of kids, they were married after all. Sure, the other stuff wasn’t kosher but I don’t see why you would use that as a winning point against me or whatever, I wasn’t the one claiming married people should always try to have kids.
Agreed, Praxedes.
«If it’s true that mere passage of laws won’t affect the abortion culture until there’s a change of heart»
“I don’t believe this is true. The mere passage of laws significantly increased abortions and jailing a few abortionists would send a pretty clear message that abortion is the killing of innocent humans.
“We don’t wait until arsonists, thieves, and rapists and their supporters have a change of heart before we hold them accountable. We shouldn’t wait with murderers either.”
True, yet abortion in 1973 was the maturation of contraception which had been planted, for a convenient marker, in 1930. Abortion hit us blindside, a bolt from the blue. But we’d been playing with contraception for decades and centuries.
This is why Pope St. John-Paul II’s work on sexuality is so important. The time-scope is in the centuries.
Having children did not cure my mother’s narcissism and severe OCD. She was a trainwreck on myriad levels. I have my own issues and knew that I had no business inflicting said issues – intentionally or not – on anyone else. Saying that having kids will ‘cure’ people of this, that, or the other is playing Russian roulette with real people’s lives.
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My blog post – Is California Psychics Legit?
“Trivializing rape is one of the worst things happening in the modern feminist movement.”
I could not agree with this more. It’s infuriating.
“We may know and love some self-centered persons who would probably be “bad parents” — but we should also pity them. The solution for such couples is not to avoid having children. We should encourage them to stop being selfish, and learn how to love and be happy and self-giving. This is why children are such a gift.”
I think this is true for some couples, but I think we also need to acknowledge that some people really are better off single and not in a union that’s purpose is to bring forth and nurture human life.
CT: I think we also need to acknowledge that some people really are better off single and not in a union that’s purpose is to bring forth and nurture human life.
Yes, or married but not having kids. People don’t need to have kids to get married. They can get married if they want to, whether or not kids are in the cards.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/30/style/surprise-mom-i-m-against-abortion.html
Jack (DLPL): And the split between men and women is tiny in the US (like you kinda got at) but it’s the opposite way in the UK for some reason. But anyway, there’s certainly a trend for younger people to be otherwise socially liberal but anti-abortion. I’m not just wishful thinking!
Maybe, Jack, but the polls you brought up were from 2002 and January, 2003. It may be that sentiment for legal abortion is declining among “young people,” but what I see from the polls is that in 1992, 67% of college freshmen thought that abortion should be legal. In 2002, it was 54%. It was back to 60.7% in January, 2012, according to:
http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/ucla_national_poll_7_out_of_10_college_freshmen_support_gay_marriage
Maybe a change is taking place, just as you envision, but I question how fast and prevalent it really is.
Additionally, younger people being “otherwise socially liberal” is certainly the deal, and abortion does not stand alone as far as the electability of candidates.
The really fast and prevalent change is with gay rights and same-sex marriage. This has quickly become a deal-breaker; candidates in general are not going to be running on the same old “conservative” platforms any more – there will be changes.
You’ve mentioned that in the future “we will be making the laws,” – there the “we” is people coming after the Baby Boomers and Generation X. And that is true, President, Congress, Supreme Court, right down to the local dogcatcher.
What will be the determining issues of the time?
“Yes, or married but not having kids. People don’t need to have kids to get married. They can get married if they want to, whether or not kids are in the cards.”
They can, but they shouldn’t. If people believe that they are truly unable to care for human life, they should not be engaging in the behavior that creates it. Now, many people who think this way are wrong, and a surprise pregnancy will show them what they’ve been missing and how greatly they’ve been selling themselves short (as Del said). Obviously anyone who will maintain their desired childlessness by killing any children they create, should not be having sex at all.
CT, is that not just saying, then, that only people who can have kids should get married?
Most sex is not with the intent to have kids, in the first place, whether or not a pregnancy can result.
Marriage is very much a civil, societal thing, as well as what some other people think about it.
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