Back-Alley Abortions in 2011: How Anti-Choice Zealots Force Women to Go to Dangerous Clinics Like Dr. Kermit Gosnell's

I've spoken about reproductive rights before, but always with the understanding that some people out there are Pro-Life. I haven't been respectful of that position, but I've at least tried not to judge it too hard.

To be clear, my definition of Pro-Life is NOT someone who is against abortion, but against women having the freedom to CHOOSE an abortion.

Everyone is against abortion. EVERYONE. No one ever wants to have one and if there is a tiny minority out there who are using it as their ONLY method of birth control, I don't want them contributing to the gene pool anyway.

That said, the freedom to choose is continually under assault in the US, with government funding non-existent for it (can't fund baby-killing, don't ya know?) Ironically, the same asshats who are against any sort of government subsidy for abortion are also against WELFARE, which means that a poor woman who can't afford an abortion and who will be FORCED to carry a child she doesn't want and/or can't support will have no help for the child once it is born. So they want to force women to be broodmares, but then take no responsibility for the child after it's born.

Every day, doctors who provide abortions are threatened with DEATH. The graduating classes of medical schools are given leaflets threatening them with what will happen if they choose to help women who have been raped, victims of incest, whose lives are in danger or, MOST IMPORTANTLY, who simply don't want to carry a child.

To be very, very clear here - to me, there are no exceptions to abortion. As Doug Stanhope once said about those who are in favor of it only in cases of rape and incest, "What, it's only okay if the father is an asshole?"

Women have the right to have sex as freely as they wish to. Yes, they should take reasonable precautions against pregnancy but a) birth control doesn't always work and b) someone else's sex life is NONE OF MY FUCKING BUSINESS. Or yours.

Either a woman's body is hers or it isn't. After seeing this MURDER case and seeing women in the US going back to a pre-Roe Vs. Wade society, I no longer have ANY gray area here. Well, just one.

If a woman gives birth to a child with fetal alcohol syndrome or addicted to a controlled substance, I'm willing to discuss it as child abuse once it's breathing on its own outside of her body, but even there I feel as though it's a slippery slope. It's telling a woman that her body is no longer hers once she's pregnant and I just don't know if I can be behind that. I almost feel as though there shouldn't be any government support for women who do this if they keep custody of the child, but again, it's a VERY slippery slope, :( and I'm willing to hear other thoughts on this aspect of it and this aspect alone.

This is my line in the sand, friends' list. I don't mind if you believe that life begins at conception (even though I disagree) and work to give women other options. I'm 100% in favor of women having the freedom to HAVE THE BABY if that's what they wish to do - reproduction should never be a financial concern, even though it always is, :(. The issue here is about giving women the freedom to be able to choose what's right for them and what they will be able to live with.

However, if you identify as Pro-Life (rather than Pro-Woman, which is how I identify because Pro-Choice has become synonymous with Pro-Abortion), and are someone who actively demonstrates against abortion, who supports politicians who vote against my right to choose and who believes that every pregnancy should end in a baby regardless of the wishes and/or physical and mental well-being of the woman carrying that baby, please defriend me now, as I don't want to be anywhere near you, even virtually.

Reproductive rights must be absolute and the rights of the born must outweigh the rights of the unborn, 100% of the time. Otherwise, women are nothing more than broodmares.

Neigh.