Jun 5, 2011

Bachelor Frog vs Myths About Pro-Lifers: The Froggening


NOTE: This blog was co-written with an alarmingly smart guy, who for what I’m describing as lulzy purposes wants to go by the moniker of “Raincoat Jed.” His argument for this handle is that “[Black] raincoats are actually better [than trenchcoats] because then you can go around perving even when it's raining out.” I then reestablished myself as an awful, awful person by making up a limerick:

No bomber jacket, no plain trench, but a black raincoat carefully chosen
For length of hem and camouflage, for dramatic reveals most unwelcome
Weather is of no matter with the preparations that now come to light
Neither rain nor shine nor dark of night will keep the peen from others' sight.

ON TO THE BLOG

I clicked on another Exmormon.org topic and was greeted with
this thread.  The initial topic has some solid points; Mormons do tend to get angry about teens being given birth control, though I have not personally run across any who were mad about a cure for HIV. However...

“Think about abortion, for example. These folks *pretend* it's all about being "
‘pro life’. But if you know their views on capital punishment, and social safety-net programs for poor or underage mothers, you quickly surmise it isn't about life at all. It's about punishing a woman for her ‘slutty’ behavior by making sure she has to deal with the consequences.”

What.

“that's very true. it's all about punishing the sinner and her child. no other rational is possible. If you are going to force her to carry the baby to term, then you have to provide services. To not do so is just being plain vindictive.”

Excuse me?

Well, aren’t we full of high-and-mighty today, O Exmormon posts?

It takes a very small mind to think that:

1. Capital punishment and abortion are somehow linked, or that it’s hypocritical to support one but not the other.
2. Services must be provided to people who get pregnant if they are “poor.”
3. Anyone against abortion is trying to “punish a sinner.”


➻Capital Punishment vs Abortion

I’ve always wondered if the people equating abortion with capital punishment--then calling everyone who opposes the former but supports the latter a hypocrite--really know what they’re saying. If it’s true that you’re a hypocrite for being pro-life and also pro-capital punishment, then it shouldn’t be difficult to see that the corollary to that is that it must also be true that if you’re anti-capital punishment and not pro-life, you’re also a hypocrite. That would make quite a lot of pro-choicers hypocrites, since many of them are against capital punishment.

In reality, the issues involved in abortion and capital punishment are very different, and there is no logical reason why a person can’t support one while opposing the other, support both at the same time, or oppose both at the same time. Both issues deal with life and death in some capacity, but that’s the only similarity. A murderer is guilty of having committed a crime. A fetus is not. Most everyone can agree with the belief that criminals should be punished and that innocents should not be, and that the law has an obligation to protect innocents from physical harm from aggressors. The pro-life position is simply that the fetus is an innocent, and thus should be afforded legal protection on the basis of the aforementioned beliefs that we all already share. The pro-choicer disagrees only because he/she does not conceive of the fetus as a real person in the first place. The capital punishment debate, on the other hand, is over to what extent a convicted criminal, who everybody already agrees is both (A) a person and (B) guilty, should be punished.

➻Services Provided vs Providing For Yourself

Sometimes I think leftists must sit in total puzzlement at how women were able to raise children before the advent of the welfare state. I can’t decide whether this is more silly or less silly than accusing pro-lifers of being hypocrites for supporting capital punishment (to the extent that pro-lifers actually support capital punishment). Now, someone may say they’re wrong, but the hypocrisy charge makes no sense. Since, again, pro-lifers do not take the view that a fetus is not a person, you could charge anyone who is against the killing of dependents and also against government welfare of being a hypocrite. If you’re against a mother drowning her five-year-old and also against giving her welfare, are you a hypocrite? If you’re against a man dumping his wheelchair-bound wife off a cliff and also against giving the couple welfare are you a hypocrite? Please.

➻Punishing The Sinners

What an interesting theory. It’s like it was thought up by someone who hates religion and everything associated with it. Oh, wait.

This assertion seems to be the conclusion that is reached once it is falsely determined that pro-lifers are hypocrites. It reduces the pro-life position to a kind of ruse. The reasoning is that they (pro-lifers) aren’t actually interested in the life of the fetus at all since they don’t support the nanny state and oppose the death penalty (<--Now, really, doesn’t that sound stupid?); therefore, it must be that they want to punish women for having premarital sex--or something like that. Who knows. But we know this is silly since we’ve already established that being against killing human fetuses does not logically demand that one also oppose the death penalty and embrace the entitlement culture.
I’m not a hugely religious person myself. I believe in God, but I don’t trust Him in the slightest because the guy is a jerk. Point being, if someone goes off and kills their kid, I feel a certain amount of concern about this. And frankly, I don’t really like most children because I think they’re little sociopaths. And I am certainly desensitized to most blood and gore; which is why I can look at abortion photos with a relatively calm demeanor, acknowledging that I find it vile while still remaining collected. Yet I’m still anti-abortion. Being anti-abortion is not about “punishing” anyone. To arrive at the idea that preventing a woman from aborting a fetus is about “punishing” her, you must have first accepted the idea that a child is an unacceptable burden. When there are so many excellent adoption options and so many people who cannot have children who would be overjoyed to take on such a “burden,” it is hardly a punishment to wait 9 months, deliver, and give the baby the chance at a happy life that it deserves.
I may be in the minority within the pro-life group in some ways. I see nothing wrong with the “morning after pill.”  I see nothing wrong with birth control, or even vasectomies or tubal ligation, if that is what the person desires. If a pregnancy (such as ectopic, though there are many more examples) would endanger the life of the mother, ending the pregnancy would be an extremely sad option--but I do not believe that it should be taken off the table as an option.

But I get fairly offended at the idea that by being anti-abortion, I am against women’s rights or trying to punish anyone. Unlike my fellow ExMos, I went from being a relatively liberal Mormon to being a Republican with a slight Libertarian list, while they went from being somewhat conservative to far-left. I understand their anger and frustration with the Mormon church, but I often feel that their desire to do the total opposite than what they would have done while in the church can cause them to make choices based on emotion rather than reason, something which they rightly ridicule Mormons for.

During the 2008 election, there were many ExMo women who glorified Hillary as a “feminist” candidate, to the point that I quit the Yahoo! Exmormon group. Many also glorified Obama for his skin color, citing their reasons as being that the Mormon church is disrespectful towards people of color (often true). However, turning your life into a sort of revenge based on hating all things conservative is, at least to me, a poor choice.



Note: These Three Things” by Type O Negative was written by Steele after, from what I hear, a longtime girlfriend found herself pregnant with his (rumored gender) son. She had an abortion, (rumored to have been) without his knowledge. Being a kind, gentle man who loved children, he was crushed when he eventually found out and penned the song for “Dead Again,” their last (and unfortunately final) album, referring to abortion in an interview later as “killing angels.” I would not want to give the impression that I don’t think that it took some serious balls to put that song out there or imply that I do not greatly admire Peter for writing it--or indeed, greatly admire him in general-- by not placing it as the embedded video for this post and instead as a link. I have chosen to embed the following song by The Cranberries instead simply because even a year after Peter passing away, seeing a Type O video, a picture, discussing him in detail, or unexpectedly hearing the music gives me a very harsh emotional jolt. Please enjoy the music.


2 comments:

  1. I do believe I somewhat like this Jed character's influence upon you.

    Also, I am still yet to be presented with a foetus that had committed a felony; therefore the link between abortion and capital punishment remains tenuous at best...

    ReplyDelete
  2. i think abortion should be a 2 way street. dad should have a voice in the process, but all in all......it's mom's decision. hopefully she'll be cool and take the father's POV into perspective.

    ReplyDelete

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