Posted on 10/15/2014 5:17:53 AM PDT by wagglebee
I usually skim books by pro-abortioniststhe arguments are repetitious and drawn from the same fetid pool of anti-child and (usually) anti-male rhetoric. But I believe I will have to read Katha Pollitts Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights.
Is it because Pollitts book promises a breakthrough, so to speak, a new way of defending the indefensible? Not if you read the 100% sympathetic reviews that have appeared in the usual places (Slate, the New York Times, Salon, etc., etc.) But thats not the point, although you keep hearing notions that an abortion absolutist is somehow reaching out to people who share none of her militancy or her views.
So what does Hanna Rosin, writing for Slate, like about Pollitts new book? (There are a few quibbles, but that is a subject for another time.)
First and foremost, Pollitt reaffirms Rosens own condescending prejudices. For instance, its so 1950ish to think there could possibly be anything wrong about abortion, anything the tiniest bit problematic.
Why cant the movie Obvious Child make a joke out of the lead character obliterating her unborn child? We shouldnt need a book explaining why abortion rights are important, Rosin writes. We should be over that by now.
So why arent we collectively over that by now? You guessed it: us.
The reason were not, according to Pollitt, is that we have all essentially been brainwashed by a small minority of pro-life activists.
Before I go any further, it is always instructive to remember how contemptuous pro-abortionists are not just of uswhat else would you expect?but of the American public. They are all fools, dolts who can be manipulated by a handful of anti-abortion whackos.
Is it any wonder the abortion militants increasingly have an image problem, one some of the saner types are trying to rectify by sort of giving up on the content-free pro-choice idiom?
And, by the way, if you are Rosin, you would think youd be more careful talking about brainwashing. It was her side that dredged up the ridiculous, reason-free war on women meme, one which, as the public thinks more deeply, is beginning to lose its hold.
Anyway, back to the review.
Again, I havent read the book yet, but can anyone read the following paragraph (pro, con, or have no opinion on abortion) and not smile?
Pollitt aims her book at the muddled middle who have been infected by the awfulization [of abortion] without thinking about it that much. To win them back shes crafted a lengthy Socratic response dissecting the contradictions on the pro-life side.
Socratic? Please.
Note who the muddled (or mushy) middle is, besides being infected (gosh, now were reduced to spreading viruses?). In fact, as polling data going back decades reveals, it refers to all those Americans who are told they are pro-choice when, in fact, they oppose the reasons for which 90%+ of all abortions are performed.
Rosin/Pollitt might concede the numbers (not my conclusion, of course), but counter thats just they havent had the benefit of reading Ms. Socrates wisdom.
Just one other point (there are at least four or five more worth considering but ). For reasons that make sense only to the hard-core pro-abortionist, Pollitt believes (Rosin writes) that the moral high ground is in reclaiming the right to have an abortion, regardless of the circumstances.
None of this hard case nonsense for the abortion on demand without apology crowd. That simply breeds defensiveness, an invitation to defeat.
So, Pollitt/Rosin and their ilk believe that the way to the American publics heart is through .abortions at any stage of gestation, for any reason, or none, paid for by you and me. Honestly, they really do believe theyve stumbled on the key that will unlock the mystery of why they havent secured abortion-on-demand.
Heres the distilled essence of philosophy of the absolutist times ten pro-abortionist:
The fog of regret has meant no one is able to confidently defend or even cleanly describe whats actually going on: Three in 10 American women have abortions by the time they hit menopause. They are not generally victims of rape or incest, or in any pitiable situation from which they need to be rescued. They are making a reasonable and even admirable decision that they cant raise a child at the moment. Is that so hard to say? As Pollitt puts it, This is not the right time for me should be reason enough. And saying that aloud would help push back against the lingering notion that its unnatural for a woman to choose herself over others.
Rosin proudly tells us between her second and third (living) children, she aborted a baby. In so doing, clearly she pushed back against the lingering notion that its unnatural for a woman to choose herself over others.
Did she have post-abortion regret? Naw, although Part of me thinks the shadow aborted child stayed with me and created a space for the last one to be born. But dont draw any of the wrong conclusions. Rosin was too busy working and caring for her two children to even think about the one she didnt have time for.
Here is Rosins conclusion, which is as chilling as it is sad:
Like Pollitt said about the pro-lifers, I recognize that the fetus and the mother have a complicated relationship without being able to fully articulate what that is. The aborted fetus hung around as a concept, nothing at all like the living children I already had. Having an abortion left me with a sense of what a great power it is to be able to give life but also a sense that I can trust myself to use it carefully.
Having an abortion left me with a sense of what a great power it is to be able to give life but also a sense that I can trust myself to use it carefully. Rosins complicated relationship was that she and her husband brought that child into existence buttrusting in her own wisdomchose not to give him or her life (birth). Sorry, kid, your timing was off.
It reminds me of the woman we wrote about earlier this week, the one who posted a letter on Reddit to the child she was about to abort:
I promise I will see you again, and next time, you can call me Mom.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared at National Right to Life News Today.
There are lots of people who want to be ethnically and culturally identified as being Jewish.
They just don’t want to be bothered with this God fellow hanging around.
Hmmm. If only there was some process, or "action" if you will, that causes babies to be conceived. Then, the logical solution would be to avoid that "action" if one "can't raise a child at that moment". If it were only possible.
Interesting. Thanks for the info. She sounds exactly like some of my female college professors back in the ‘60s.
Openly admitting that getting an abortion is "all about me and my convenience", because voluntarily grasping sexual pleasure without consequences (like an animal) is an entitlement.
Je Who? vah...
Another Jew pushing the US abortion machine. Why am I not surprised?
I remember as an 8 year old being terribly shocked and grieving over the fact that I found out our neighbor lady had aborted her dog Dino’s puppies. I couldn’t believe that she could do anything that horrible to Dino’s poor little puppies.
That was before legalized abortion for babies. I hadn’t even heard of abortion before, but the horror of it being done to puppies hurt me very much. So I am a classic case of a child who hated abortion, even done to puppies. right from the start. Nobody had brainwashed me. It is normal for people to hate abortion, not normal for them to love it. It is the pro deathers that are the brainwashed zombies.
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