Wednesday, Lori Ziganto (one of my favorite bloggers) wrote a brilliant piece in response to an article Jessica Valenti wrote on Feministing. Another Feministing author, Lori, had heard about the ad campaign called “Abortion Changes You” last month that was putting ads on the New York subway.
Here is what the ad looks like:
Considering feminists cannot abide anything that might paint abortion in a negative light, this made Lori VERY angry. She explained that somehow, this ignores the experiences and reactions women have had with and from abortion.
I’m all for validating and honoring the experience of women who have had an abortion. But there are already TONS of really great support systems for women who have had abortions that are equipped to address a RANGE of post-abortion emotions and outcomes- glee, relief, guilt, sadness, loss, pride, no reaction at all, or a million other possibilities. When an ad campaign chooses to ignore these very real experiences of women who have had abortions, you have to assume that they have an agenda other than helping real women.
Perhaps Lori was blinded by her “ZOMG SOMEONE IS ATTACKING ABORTION YEAAAAARRRGHHHHH!” rage, but the whole point of this ad campaign is to point out how abortion can affect a woman. I know — all things negative relating to abortion must be kept super-secret. But here in the real world, when it comes to medical procedures, most normal women like to know exactly what will be done to them and what the possible risks and repercussions could be. Normal women, even pro-abortion women, don’t see abortion as something to be taken lightly. They don’t look at it the way radical feminists do. Impossible for feminists to understand, I know.
Well, this week, Jessica found out that someone had committed vandalism and defaced the ad. Of course, this just made her day.
Here is what it looked like after it was defaced:
Jessica’s response was to call the vandal a “pro-choice hero” and “Love. It.”
And this is where Lori got involved. She wrote a great post about the whole controversy.
A very mild ad, indeed. And an accurate one; abortion does change you. While feminists sneer at the idea of post-abortion syndrome, it does exist. And if they actually cared about women, they’d admit that fact and would stop encouraging women to have abortions without disclosing the trauma that can occur to the woman.
It’s clear that they don’t care about the dead babies, but they also need to stop insisting that they are For Women ™ , when they most obviously are not. You see, feminists, an unborn baby is not just a clump of cells. Many women who abort their babies, therefore, suffer intense pain and immense guilt. Their entire lives.
They may just be nutty wing nuts to you, but they are real people with true feelings. Because you do nothing but sneer at those feelings, in fact lie about their very existence, your For The Women card is hereby pulled. You are more concerned with one Supreme Court case, that you constantly use as a wedge and a pawn, than you are with actual women.
Jessica has now responded by attacking Lori Ziganto. And while I’m sure she and her fellow feminist zombies thought their responses were just so super intelligent and better than Lori’s post, all they really did was prove Lori’s point.
Going to college is a matter of “convenience”? Really? Women want higher education for “co-ed fun”?
I always wondered what anti-choicers meant when they said women get abortions “for convenience.” Did they think that women were procuring lunchtime abortions so they could go out and booze it up that night? That women didn’t feel like gaining weight and that ending the pregnancy would be so much easier? I figured that they had this bizarre fictitious woman in their minds and that they didn’t recognize the complex, personal, and often selfless reasons women decide to get abortions. But I was wrong.
It isn’t that anti-choicers don’t understand why women get abortions – it’s that they care so little about women’s lives that any reason given to obtain an abortion is seen as “convenient.”
Some things that are convenient: Providing for your existing children. Going to college. Having enough money to eat, pay rent, keep the electricity on. Not dying.
So yeah, I guess I would “rejoice” over women obtaining abortions when it’s convenient. (The inaccessibility of abortion for too many women makes actual rejoicing impossible.) Whether it’s for health, financial, and educational reasons – or simply not wanting to have a child yet – it would absolutely thrill me if women’s life decisions were respected, accepted and supported. But instead, we live in a world where a woman’s desire for something as basic as education is mocked as selfish. And we’re the ones who are “anti-woman”? I think not.
Reproductive health and justice is one of my strongest passions (I work with Planned Parenthood). When people try to block abortion access, I start crying and it’s hard for me to stop. I am still shocked at the huge disregard anti-choicers have for womens lives. They really do have no regard for human life, because, guess what? women are human. This: “Some things that are convenient: Providing for your existing children. Going to college. Having enough money to eat, pay rent, keep the electricity on. Not dying.” made me tear up. And honestly, if I were to become pregnant right now, I would get an abortion because I need to finish college and have enough money to eat, pay rent, and keep the electricity on. I am also bipolar, and I would have to stop taking my medication if I were to have a baby, which would be downright dangerous. Thanks for the post, Jessica.
But the point is that 4 years of college means a completely different life than a life w/o 4 years of college and anyone who doesn’t recognize that is either living in a dreamworld or is being deliberately obtuse. There is nothing “everyday” about going to college – it’s an incredible privilege that changes people’s lives.
And here we go, with feminists making women perpetual victims yet again, rather than empowering them. Jessica and her fellow zombies cannot seem to wrap their minds around the idea of a woman having a child and going to college at the same time. I know, I know — insanity, right? But somehow, my mother was able to work full-time, raise two children, have a loving marriage, and get her college degree. Somehow, several of my friends are raising children and getting their degrees. Where are the feminists encouraging women to do both? Heck, they don’t even have to raise the baby. There’s always adoption, the option that you’ll never hear someone like Jessica Valenti champion. If the college-aged girl wasn’t ready for a kid, all she’d have to do was carry the baby for nine months while she went to school and then she could help a couple who can’t have children make a family. But if a girl gets pregnant and it’s “inconvenient”, all feminists like Jessica Valenti can do is scream at the girl to HAVE AN ABORTION! HAVE AN ABORTION! Sometimes, you don’t get pregnant at a convenient time. I get that. It doesn’t mean that you have to choose between going to college or having a baby. But that’s the only option given to women if they listen to feminists. They have to choose either college or their child, because presumably, having a child at an inconvenient time would be the WORST THING EVER!!!
Look, I know all about not wanting to have a baby at a certain time. I’m engaged, but my fiance is a Marine with an upcoming deployment. If I got pregnant now, the baby would be born while Matt was in Afghanistan. I do not want to go through a pregnancy by myself, and I do not want Matt to miss the birth of his first child. I don’t want him to come home to the son or daughter he’s never met. We also don’t have a lot of money to be raising a child right now. A baby just is not in our plans at the moment.
But it could happen. And if it did, you can bet your ass that abortion would never be an option for us. We would find a way to make it work. Why do feminists never present that as a viable option for women?
It’s like they practically salivate over the thought of another woman getting an abortion. I don’t know why, but it’s sickening how much feminists try to actively convince women to have abortions. And of course, never mentioned is the option of not getting pregnant if you absolutely cannot handle a baby at the moment. There’s birth control, and if you can’t afford that, the solution is simple: don’t have sex. But of course, telling a feminist that women shouldn’t have sex if they aren’t ready for a baby might make their head explode. I mean, really, dare you tell women that they should keep their legs shut if they aren’t ready to get pregnant?! Believe it or not, there is an element of personal responsibility at play here. The whole feminist philosophy is disgusting. They tell women to sleep around like men do. When women then get unintentionally pregnant (usually while unmarried), they tell the women to just kill the damn burden growing inside of you and throw it out like refuse. And NO, don’t you dare do any research about abortion, what your baby looks like, or the effect having an abortion can have on you. Just kill the damn thing and get back to your Womyn’s Studies classes because college is the MOST. IMPORTANT. THING. EVER! And no, you cannot do both, you must choose between being a pregnant, barefoot housewife in a kitchen or being a smart, single, feminist womyn with a degree in Gender Studies. If you have the baby you are contributing to the partiarchy! And you will be a victim! Do what we say! Don’t think for yourself!
It’s sickening, truly sickening.
All of this just goes to show how far feminism has fallen. Feminists were once made up of smart, strong women (who, incidentally, despised abortion and rightfully saw it as evil) who were fighting for real gender equality — the right to vote, to get an education.
Now, feminists crusade for abortion. It’s their number one cause. And they don’t even want women to be informed. They don’t want women seeing ultrasounds first because they know it’ll influence them to have the baby. They don’t want women learning that abortion can have devastating physical and emotional repercussions. They don’t want abortion to be “safe, legal, and rare”. Lori’s post showcased another example of a feminist accidentally exposing that trust, and it pissed Jessica Valenti off. Feminists don’t want women to be able to choose what’s best for them; they want women choosing abortion. I can only assume it’s because if women stop choosing abortion, then feminists will lose their last grip on relevance in today’s society. Getting the truth out about abortion and its possible effects, as the “Abortion Changes You” campaign does, terrifies and angers feminists.
It’s pathetic and disgusting, that someone would actually encourage abortion — the murder of the unborn — solely to help maintain their own grip on power and relevance in the world. Anything that harms the pro-abortion movement really is just harming modern feminism. And this ad is just another crack in the feminist “we help womyn” facade.
Cross-posted at The Green Room and Live Action.
I Aborted says: Excuse me, Ms. Fiano, but I’m offended. You seem to think you know quite a lot about how women feel after an abortion. I think you’re clueless. In critiquing this ad, Jessica Valenti is NOT erasing the spectrum of feelings that aborting women experience. She’s pointing out a commonplace scare tactic employed by those who identify as so-called “pro-life” advocates. I certainly felt upset, distraught, and emotional after I chose abortion a few years back. I do no consider these emotions to be symptomatic of post-abortion “depression” or “regret” or “guilt over killing an unborn child”. Why don’t you talk to a few women who’ve experienced abortion before you go around generalizing about how women feel about this medical procedure?
You’re right. Clearly, you know not only everything about me, but also everything about every single one of my friends and family and acquaintances. I must not know anyone, ever, who’s had an abortion. I must not have ever done any research whatsoever on abortion and the effects it has on a woman. And you *know* all of this because… you disagree with me? Yes. Yes, that makes PERFECT sense. Way to go.
Rob Farrington says: One of the best posts I ever read on abortion, from a from a non-religious point of view, was by Rachel Lucas. Unfortunately I can’t find it because her blog is on hold at the moment, but the gist of it was (I think, but it was a long time ago!):
That can’t everyone, left or right, religious, agnostic or
atheist, at least agree that on the whole, it’s a totally unneccessary procedure for a woman to go through? And that even if you view an unborn baby as a ‘group of cells’, every medical procedure as invasive as abortion carries a risk of the patient dying on the operating table? So why shouldn’t feminists be, if anything, as eager to reduce the number of abortions as everyone else?
Rachel covered the rape angle (which causes problems for me, too), but pointed out that the vast majority of unwanted pregnances are a result of people having unprotected sex without bothering to take responsibility at the time for the possible consequences.
She also laid to bed the feminist argument that ‘Surely no woman would put herself through an abortion unless it was absolutely necessary, and how DARE you suggest otherwise!!!’, that’s designed to stop any counter argument, especially if it’s from a man – she knew someone who had admitted that she found it easier to have an abortion a year, than bother with the complicated subject of birth control. It was a terrific post which not only had me nodding in agreement, but thinking about the subject of abortion from a new angle.
The word ‘liberal’ has been hijacked over the years – I could technically be described as a ‘classical liberal’ in that I believe in small government and personal responsibility but somehow, people who believe in exactly the opposite have stolen the label for themselves.
The word ‘feminist’ has been stolen, too. Just when did it stop describing someone who believed in equal rights for women, and start applying to people who care nothing for the wellbeing of anyone, let alone the people they claim to be fighting for, as long as they can use those people as pawns to advance their screwed up ideology?
Good post. That must be why Hot Air picked it up. I think you have portrayed the way feminism dehumanizes women through the sacrament of abortion quite well.
Your first commenter claimed to be “offended”. The irony is that that is also a choice. It always amazes me how little support for “choice” pro-choice people really have.
Keep up the good work.
Herr Morgenholz says: My late mother was of the opinion that a woman had every right to kill her baby if she would just admit to herself that was what she was doing. In other words, there is responsibility to be taken. Feminists want abortion and sex to be without responsibility. It is an immature, teenage mindset, which means they fit perfectly into the Left side of the spectrum.
Since Roe v. Wade, approximately 20 million female babies have been aborted. That doesn’t sound “pro-womyn” to me.
ryukyu says: A girlfriend of mine had an abortion before we dated. She would weep openly whenever we watched movies that had babies in them and she developed endometriosis. Sounds like it changed her to me.
This is a wonderful article. Thank you for helping to bring to light the fact that sex itself is a choice.
I linked to your article at http://wrestlingwithapep.posterous.com/ and wrote my response to yours. I’m also going to add you to my Google Reader–it’s fantastic to find someone female who feels essentially the same way I do about this topic. 🙂
I look forward to reading more!
Oh, btw, I’ve always wanted to create a bumpersticker or T-shirt that said, “You’ve already made your choice.” 🙂
Herr Morgenholz says: I’m not a regular visitor here Cassy, but a couple things that I noted. I followed the Feministing link and read the comments, and these girls are just sick. Sick beyond understanding. The man-hatred, the self-absorption, the narcissism, are beyond my experience. I’ll bet less than a third of them actually had a father in the house growing up, and if they did, he was probably an academic.
For “I aborted”, who made the first comment, I have a suggestion: rubbers. They’re available at any drugstore, gas station bathroom, campus health clinic, or elementary school nurse’s office.
As a society, we’ll kill our future citizens, but we can’t muster the will to put a bullet behind Khalid Sheikh Muhammad’s ear. We are truly screwed.
Steve L. says: Selfless?
I find it interesting that every “reason” for abortion she gave was not selfless but rather selfish.
The word doesn’t mean what she thinks it means.
alwaysfiredup says: Good article. May I please point out a correction from the first couple grafs?
Considering feminists cannot abide anything that might paint abortion in a negative light, this made Lori VERY angry. She explained that somehow, this ignores the experiences and reactions women have had with and from abortion….
Perhaps Lori was blinded by her “ZOMG SOMEONE IS ATTACKING ABORTION YEAAAAARRRGHHHHH!” rage, but the whole point of this ad campaign is to point out how abortion can affect a woman.
I think you meant “Jessica” instead of “Lori” both times, yes?
No, if you follow the links you’ll see that there are two different Loris. One Lori is Lori Ziganto, the pro-life blogger. The other Lori blogs for Feministing.
Abortion bad; guns good says: Thank you, “I aborted;” finally, somebody who is not brainwashed by conservatives like Cassy. As for the post, clearly Fiano is ignorant regarding the history of the feminist movement, as well as the current state of feminism (e.g., feminists of the past were most definitely not all anti-choice). Perhaps Fiano should put her gun down and do some actual research before ranting. I am pro-choice, though I am not dogmatic: I would love an intellectual debate about reproductive rights. However, this post, imbued with misinformation and opinion versus evidence-based facts, was far from intellectual or informative. Luckily, poorly written polemics fail to achieve much, quickly vanishing into the blogosphere after having made a few right-wing conservatives feel validated.
Daredevil says: “I would love an intellectual debate about reproductive rights. However, this post, imbued with misinformation and opinion versus evidence-based facts, was far from intellectual or informative. Luckily, poorly written polemics fail to achieve much, quickly vanishing into the blogosphere after having made a few right-wing conservatives feel validated.”
Neither is your post very informative and well written. You sure think like an intellectual elitist, but nothing to back up your talk. If you believe you can refute what Cassy said about earliest feminists, then present evidence and trying proving it. Merely talking down about her and bringing yourself up is purely what you accused her of doing- poorly polemic made to self-vaidate your own position. Nothing more, nothing less.
Daredevil says: Daley Gator,
GO GATORS, LET’S GET UP AND GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Daredevil says: Cas wrote: It’s like they practically salivate over the thought of another woman getting an abortion.
Me: Roman Catholics, Anglo-Catholics and Eastern Orthodoxs have their seven sacraments, Lutherans and Reformed Protestants have their two sacraments (Lord’s supper and baptism, though some Lutherans count confession as a third), etc.
Radical feminists have what for a sacrament? ABORTION!!!!!!
Cassy, I posted a day late to HotAir, so here’s my comment reposted — I didn’t want you to miss it. 🙂
——–
And if [unplanned pregnancy] did [happen], you can bet your ass that abortion would never be an option for us. We would find a way to make it work. Why do feminists never present that as a viable option for women? It’s like they practically salivate over the thought of another woman getting an abortion. I don’t know why…
I do. Because their position is not valid, and deep down they know it, they need constant, almost ritual, reassurance that their position is valid.
To keep the darkness from crashing in all around them, they need a constant supply of dead bodies.
It’s the same phenomenon we see with other aspirational truths formed around unnatural behavior, such as affirmative action, which do not come true or remain true on their own until/unless the public actually engages in unnatural behavior (such as hiring someone less suited for a given job). Because they do not originate naturally, such “truths” must be consciously created and maintained — and it takes a constant energy input to keep them “true”.
Without that constant input of energy, the truths fall apart and society reverts to behavior and beliefs based around common sense, such as carrying a baby to term, recognizing that the after-effects of an abortion might be unpleasant, recognizing we shouldn’t hire someone just because of their skin color, etc.
On some level even these fanatics recognize such events are unnatural, and so any instance of them occurring is like a miracle to them, a divine affirmation of their irrational beliefs. But these are “miracles” with a difference: in order to continue to believe, to “know” in their bones that their belief is valid, these “miracles” must constantly be witnessed again and again; the belief is only as strong as the stream of miracles can support. And because the belief is unnatural, there is a large, natural decay in the value of the most recent affirmation. If the miracles ever stop happening, or if there is even a short interruption in the flow of “miracles”, the entire belief system gets called into question.
Thus the obsessive-compulsive need for constant reassurance through ritual repetition of the “miracle” of unnatural behavior — it is intrinsic to the policy. Without it people go crazy from the silence. Like the characters in Waiting for Godot, the silence of no abortions, no unqualified minorities hired, no meaningless firsts such as “first black Native American Muslim female trans-gender neuter on the Illinois bench”, etc., etc., equals no peace, a soul in turmoil, and a compulsion to re-enact the miracle ritual over and over again just to shatter the silence.
Grey says: Since you were preaching so righteously about the Abortion Changes You campaign, I actually looked that website up. The way you talk about it makes it seem like they provide clear cut statistics and facts along with personal accounts. There were no statistics or facts. How is it supposed to inform women if it doesn’t give the proper information?
I don’t doubt that people who’ve had abortions aren’t in incredibly emotional turmoil. Of course they are. Abortion is a big decision that everybody, no matter what their political stance is, gets devastated by.
And sure, women can balance a baby and go to college at the same time. But in case you haven’t notice it’s incredibly hard. People come from different backgrounds and not all have the money, resources, and emotional support to raise a child and go to college. Many women drop out and they don’t get to start their career. Maybe they end up with no money. And yes, you might say I’m “victimizing” women, but I’m being realistic.
In all, there is no black and white as you portray in this blog, there are many shades of gray in between. People are different, and it’s their own lives, not yours. Honestly, it does sadden me that potential human lives are destroyed. I mean, have you ever met someone who said, “Oh I love killing babies, I do it every weekend!” No. We’re all humans, despite what you try to paint.
Tim says: Why doesn’t anyone ever discuss women acting like retards? It is somehow implied that women are the defacto knowers of all things, and smarter than men, when obviously feminists have a hard time using birth control. How about this; we don’t just abort the child of a feminist, we abort the feminist too. If you are so smart lady, why can’t you figure out the risks of sex or do the best you can to prohibit yourself from having a kid at the wrong time or with the wrong men? Oh, no. That would take too much work. http://www.mirena-us.com/ OR MAYBE, JUST MAYBE ONE OF THE WOMEN SCIENTISTS WHO ARE EQUAL TO… I MEAN BETTER THAN MEN COULD INVENT FOOLPROOF BIRTH CONTROL… RIGHT?!?
I have come to hate feminists because of this very thing; they always go on about how they hate only hateable men, but seem to hate all men and then always choose men who are bad for them, treat them poorly, will leave them high and dry, and possibly pregnant. Then, it’s time for an abortion. !!!HOORAY!!!
These dumb feminazis ever think the might be living a self fulfilled prophecy? Men are all bad, and to them only bad men are men, and therefore they choose one which is bad to prove their own hypothesis. Being wrong to a feminist is scarier than some shady ‘doctor’ shoving dirty tools up their plumbing and VACUMMING UP A LIQUIFIED KID(oh, I mean meat lump.. sorry.)
I personally tried to be the man feminists said they wanted when I young but found out too late that they are all liars, give themselves to the same aggressive males as women have always done, and feminists have reduced humans to little more than animals. They probably don’t feel guilt, as they are incapable of feeling respect, not for men, not for children, and not for themselves or anyone that went before them. Just a bunch of vicious people, who will never be happy, and who wish to spread their misery to others. Really, can a woman who sees a growing child inside of her as a cancerous parasitical lump of meat ever really love children or a man who is the villain who made that meat lump happen?
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