When One (baby) Is Enough (ultimate in cold selfishness)

nytimes ^ | July 18, 2004 | AMY RICHARDS as told to AMY BARRETT

[litany_of_lies]

Now that another poster has identified Ms. Richards as a bit of a feminist icon (after all, she's on the campus lecture circuit, one of the ultimate badges of liberalism), it's possible the Times thought that her "star power" might somehow be persuasive.

This kind of thinking only makes sense when you spend too much time holed up in a newsroom in mid-town Manhattan (in the case of Ms. Barrett, the reporter) and too much time lecturing to naive 18-21 year-old Women's Studies majors (in the case of Ms. Richards).

It's likely The Times will soon realize its mistake, and the article will mysteriously diappear from their web site. This is just one more reason why FR IMHO has the constitutional right to post full articles, so when the Times a few years from now says "article about aborting 2 of 3 triplets? What are you talking about?" we'll have the historical record preserved.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Oh brother...you know, it's a reasonable question. You don't have to go to hyperbolic extremes. Just say no: You can't bring yourself to give him credit for not demanding his pregnant girlfriend have an abortion. You can't give him credit for wanting the children and saying so to his hell-bent-on-aborting-feminist girlfriend.

I got it.

[Gritty]

Words fail me. A picture will have to do...

The Caananite god MOLECH

[Koblenz]

She sounds perfectly reasonable to me. She can't care for three by herself and she knew her body couldn't handle three either. What if her boyfriend takes off after she had the three because it was too much stress or worse dies. He obviously didn't want to put her worries at ease with marriage or at least guarantee financial security just in case something happens. It happens all the time and she would have to do it all on her own. She only wanted one baby because that's all she could handle. Why would you purposefully create three babies when you only want one?

The only legitimate way you can be in favor of abortion is to believe that it is not ending a life. If you can somehow convince yourself that a fetus isn't a human being, then yes, you can have an abortion for whatever reason you want to. But if you think it's human, then it's murder, even if you didn't want triplets.

Under your line of reasoning, it would be perfectly ok for her to kill the babies when they were five days old. Suppose this woman had been poor, and she hadn't gotten a sonogram. Then she had triplets. Would it be ok then to kill thes babies?

[wagglebee]

I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was passively opposed to the butchering.

I had a boy, and everything is fine. But thinking about becoming pregnant again is terrifying. Am I going to have quintuplets? I would do the same thing if I had triplets again, but if I had twins, I would probably have twins. Then again, I don't know.

I assume he is still cohabitating with the mother his only child lucky enough to escape the carnage. I wonder what his outlook will be the next time she decides to murder a baby?

[hedgie]

but now I'm going to have to move to Staten Island. I'll never leave my house because I'll have to care for these children. I'll have to start shopping only at Costco and buying big jars of mayonnaise. Even in my moments of thinking about having three, I don't think that deep down I was ever considering it.

This is a joke, right? I mean, she can't be serious about this.

For you non New Yorkers out there - this is so self parodying that it would qualify as a troll if the author wasn't serious. She's basically saying that she can't bear the thought of living in a neighborhood where the only thing wrong with it is that uncool people like cops, teachers and firefighters live there.

And heaven forbid she shop at, gasp, COSTCO. I mean, only uncool people with big families like southwest asian immigrants and Upper East Side WASPs shop there...

[Petronski]

The "Final Solution" was Eichmann's idea after all.

Huh?

[Ohioan from Florida]

Yep...it reads like a parody only it's true. What was it Mark Twain said once, something like, "Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense."

What a twisted evil world we live in.

[dano1]

Apparent this Amy Richards person is a close associate of the Kerry family, based on what she wrote in her weblog. Her surving son was given a tee shirt by Kerry's sister, if you can believe that.

" 4.12.04: Webber, my nine month old son, has two choices of what to wear to the March. One, a little yellow t-shirt stating “Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights,” is a hand-me-down from Peggy Kerry, a super political organizer in New York, who also happens to work at the US Mission to the UN and be the sister of presidential candidate John Kerry. This belonged to her daughter Iris, who long ago outgrew the toddler sized t-shirt, and was purchased from the Center for Reproductive Rights. The second option is a onesie from Planned Parenthood that says “Parenthood. Plan it,” which was a gift to Webber from Gloria Feldt, the organization’s president."

[litany_of_lies]

Good points about the NYT's ignorant motivations.

Here is an "Ask Amy" response to a letter from a young girl who is troubled by the fact that early feminists were anti-abortion (her response shows a person in DEEP denial who has to rewrite history to give an answer):

Link:

http://www.feminist.com/askamy/repro/801_rr1.html

Dear Amy,

Girl, I'm so freaked out about an article in my local paper. I don't know where to even begin with some kind of rebuttal. Here's the article:

"É Prospect and Connecticut women are buying a historic collection of suffragette artifacts to display. Not only did the courageous suffragettes help us as women to achieve the right to vote, but many of them also spoke out against the violence of abortion and its damage to women.

Dr. Charlotte Denman Lozier (1844-1870) was praised in her time for defending a young, pregnant woman, Catherine Fuller, and her pre-born child against abortion. Not only did she counsel her against this course of action but she also compassionately offered her services to help Fuller bear the child. Alice Paul, original author of the Egual Rights Amendment ERA, once said, "Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women." Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) stated that abortion is "murder" and called for a "remedy for such a crying evil." Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) wrote an essay in her publication The Revolution about the "horrible crimes of child murder." Anthony was addressing the subject when she wrote, "We want prevention, not merely punishment. We must reach the root of the evil and destroy it." She spoke of the burden on the conscience of the woman who aborts her child.

Regarding men, Anthony reprimanded them, saying that they should be taught to respect women and be honestly devoted to their wives. Her article on "Marriage and Maternity" is a powerful one! It is a delight to read Susan B. Anthony's words: "Sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them" There are many other pro-life feminists. I encourage readers to visit our office Resource Center for more information on pro-life feminism-yesterday and today."

Amy, what do I say??? Also is what she said about our foremothers true? Did they really say those things about abortion??? I know what to say about the anti-choice feminism from Manifesta (great book) about how feminism is equality and taking away a women's right to choice is not being equal whether you agree or not. But what else can I say!!! Help!

Thank you so much,
Erin

Dear Erin,

I have recently received a few others notes just like yours. There is this semi-new group, Feminists for Life, and they tout Susan B. Anthony as their hero. My guess is that this group has been making a splash in the media and thus creating a buzz about feminist hypocrisy. Ugh! I think it's impossible to apply their quotes from yesterday today - especially in regards to an issue that was at an entirely different stage. As I understand it, Susan B. Anthony and other suffragists did oppose abortion, but on the grounds that it was unsafe to the women and that it was being forced on them - something that feminists today would oppose, too. Our goal isn't to force women to have abortions, but to leave it as an option should women want it. And when women do want it to ensure that it's a safe procedure.

I hope that helps and thanks for challenging this rhetoric.

Amy

[wagglebee]

Eichmann developed the Final Solution and presented it to Hitler. I was using this to reference the absurdity of exonerating a man who stands by while his girlfriend has an abortion.

[SouthernFreebird]

That's easy for you to say, but I'd have to give up my life.''

What a difference, for most women the best part of our lives start when we become pregnant. I was also bed ridden for 7 months with my last child...7 months is all that was asked of me for the most wonderful gift that is given to us humans. What a horrible POS this woman became.

[Ohioan from Florida]

Wow! Even more distortion in her deluded mind!

[Woodworker]

Hey, "open abortion" - kill anyone, any age, anywhere, anytime, is the logical conclusion of the the murder advocates, i.e., "pro-choice" crowd. Since they are often the same people who support gun control, things will get interesting if they achieve their goal!

[dano1]

"kill anyone, any age, anywhere, anytime, is the logical conclusion of the the murder advocates"

Kerry has a 100% record of voting for whatever the abortion advocates wanted.

[Petronski]

Eichmann developed the logistics, the idea itself (the notion that there needed to be a final solution to the 'jewish question') was Hitler's.


I understand your point though.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

I assume he is still cohabitating with the mother his only child lucky enough to escape the carnage. I wonder what his outlook will be the next time she decides to murder a baby?

You assume much. Insisting on bludgeoning the one half-way protagonist in this story is a strange way to react to it.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

I was using this to reference the absurdity of exonerating a man who stands by while his girlfriend has an abortion.

If it's so absurd, then why don't you say what it is you think he should have done to stop this leftist freak of a woman from killing the babies he said he wanted? Physically restrain her? What?

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

I understand your point though.

Then please - explain it to me. What should this man have done to stop this abortion? He wanted the babies, and she (an obviously determined, unrepentant individual) didn't. How could he have stopped her?