Originally posted at David Horowitz’s Newsreal:
It’s long been predicted by the pro-abortion extremists that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, women will have to go back to being butchered by seedy abortions in back alleys. There are hysterical stories consisting of coat hangers and women bleeding out because evil right-wingers wouldn’t let the kindly abortionists practice out in the open. The truth, of course, is much less hysterical. But what pro-abortion feminazi with an agenda to push would ever admit to that? Well, Amanda Marcotte, femisogynist extraordinaire, let the truth slip in a recent column written for pro-abortion website RH Reality Check.
Marcotte was applauding the television series Mad Men for featuring a character, Joan, who had gotten two abortions in the 1960s. These abortions were illegal at the time. And, says Marcotte, this is historically accurate, because the back alley abortionist myth is just not true.
In your usual overly dramatic Hollywood fare, this would have been an occasion for raising the stakes by implying that Joan was subject to a mythical back alley butcher who left her infertile for life. But instead, the doctor shrugs and suggests that the odds are that the midwife did a good job, and certainly everything that he could see was in good working order. He points out that she got pregnant after the first abortion, and so he has every reason to believe she’s fine.
Believe it or not, this was historically accurate. In the sixties, many doctors performed abortions for their regular patients and charted them as something else. If you got an abortion from someone who wasn’t your regular doctor, odds are that it was still a safe abortion. And, as I’ve written about before, the myth of the back alley butcher is mostly inaccurate. It’s tempting for pro-choicers to invoke it in an attempt to remind people of the high human cost of banning abortion, but in the end, portraying abortion providers as “butchers” mostly helps the anti-choice cause by stigmatizing the compassionate, hard-working people who have helped women in need, whether or not that help was legal.
So pro-abortion fanatics are twisting the truth to push their pro-abortion agenda? Not so fast, says Marcotte. She quickly reverts back to the typical pro-abortion hysteria, assuring us that before abortion was legal, women were indeed mutilated from botched abortions.
Which isn’t to deny that illegal abortion meant the mutilation and often death of countless women. It’s both true that when abortion was a crime most providers were professional and that hospitals had an overwhelming number of septic abortion cases. As historian Rickie Solinger points out in her book Beggars and Choosers, this is because women who didn’t know where to find a black-market abortion provider often resorted to trying to abort themselves, causing injury or even death. The coathanger is the symbol of women’s desperation when they have no access to abortion.
And Marcotte is not alone in pushing the hysteria.
Salon’s resident feminazi, Tracy Clark-Flory, was pushing the same story earlier this week about pre-Roe abortion butchery. Apparently, LAPD found the remains of some dead babies in a basement in Los Angeles. This, of course, must be evidence of back alley abortions gone wrong! (Even though organizations like NARAL insist that they aren’t babies, just clusters of cells.)
So which is it? Pre-Roe abortions were safely performed by kindly law-breaking abortionists or women were dying from botched, self-induced abortions? Funny how she can’t quite keep her story straight. Of course, it’s not like it really matters. Either way you slice it, abortions must be kept legal, according to the pro-abortion radicals like Amanda Marcotte. Whatever the narrative, whatever the facts, the agenda is the same: abortion must be legal and widespread. Femisogynists will argue up and down that pre-Roe abortions were just so dangerous, but now that it’s legal, abortion is somehow “safe”. Unfortunately, the reality is quite different. Even today, with abortion legalized, there is no such thing as a “safe” abortion.
It’s interesting that pro-abortion advocates decided to call themselves pro-choice. If it was really about choice, and not about being specifically pro-abortion, then the feminazis wouldn’t be OK with the blatant lies and manipulation that are so commonplace in the abortion movement. If it was about being pro-woman, then one might think that the femisogynists would want women to be completely informed about the risks associated and where they were with the pregnancy. Planned Parenthood, for example, has been caught multiple times lying to women about whether or not the heart has started beating yet and how developed the baby is. Even worse is the evidence of Planned Parenthood’s willingness to cover up the statutory rape and sexual abuse of minors in order to sell abortions. Does this bother the femisogynists? Nope — there’s been not a peep about it. They don’t care as long as women are getting abortions. It isn’t about choice, because for them there’s only one choice, and that’s abortion. Any amount of lies and manipulation is allowable for them if it leads to more abortions.
Yet pro-lifers are the ones labeled anti-woman.
OK, you might be thinking. So women are sometimes tricked into abortions. Surely abortion isn’t harmful to women who know the facts and aren’t lied to, right? Not so much. There are myriads of risks associated with abortions that femisogynists just don’t want women to know about. It triples the risk of breast cancer, and increases the risk of future miscarriages. Women who have abortions have higher rates of depression and substance abuse, and are also more likely to commit suicide. One organization, Operation Rescue, launched a program called Abortion Whistleblower to document botched abortions and abortion abuses. They’ve found that botched abortions have become an epidemic. They also were able to compile a list of what they call abortion’s bad boys, abortionists convicted of crimes ranging from rape and sexual abuse to murder, manslaughter, fraud, and corruption. There were filthy clinics, falsified medical records, and even one instance of cannibalism.
Safe, legal, and rare, huh? It doesn’t exactly seem like we’ve come all that far from the pre-Roe days that the abortion extremists warn us about. And it doesn’t seem like being pro-abortion equals being pro-woman. In fact, the truth seems clear: you’d be hard-pressed to find something more harmful to women than abortion, but what does an abortion extremist like Amanda Marcotte care about that? There’s an agenda to push. Abortions were either perfectly safe pre-Roe or they left women butchered out of desperation, depending on what works better to sell abortion. It’s pathetic how far the femisogynists will go to further the cause of abortion. It’s even more pathetic how they claim to be doing it in the name of women — the very people who end up getting hurt the most.
Melinda P says: The reason they are unwilling to give women all the facts about abortion is because they know that women will choose life if they realize they are having a baby. Think about all of the pregnancy resource centers around the country. They give free ultrasounds to pregnant women, and 9 times out of 10, those women choose to give their child life. All the femisogynists care about is abortion on demand. Women must choose, but they must choose their way. Planned Parenthood needs to be shut down.
bart simpson says: And pro-LIFE people get labeled “fanatics”?!? If pushing this abortion at all costs agenda, never mind the facts, never mind that women get hurt isn’t fanatical, what is? These extremists have sold themselves to do EVIL and the consequences will be horrific. And the worst part is that uninformed people who believed the lies will be hit the hardest. How do the pro-abortion fanatics live with themselves?
Sonja says: Ultimately, I am all for women having the choice. I would prefer they chose life over abortion, consulted with the father before making any decision and so on, but I am not them.
Q says: My (layman’s) understanding is that a large, large majority of “backalley” abortions in the mid-20th century were, in fact, carried out by doctors. People with medical training, in other words. I’m betting they weren’t using coat-hangers.
kirroth says: I’m pro-choice; I firmly believe a woman can and should be able to choose whether or not to have sex.
o_O
frank says: Kirroth,
Aren’t you soooooo grateful that your mom choose to have you?? Perhaps you could be so kind as to afford that small favor to others yet to take a breath. I suppose that that’s the most simplistic yet profound argument in the matter. Mom choose to have you, to allow you life. But you would heartlessly deny others that life–all so you could have your choice! How kind. I fear for a baby in your womb!!
Frank: you obviously mis-read kirroth’s post.
Kirroth is saying that the “choice” element comes into play when a man and a woman voluntarily engage in sexual intercourse. At that point, they’ve chosen to accept children into their lives.
By the way, the “Your mom chose to have you” argument is just terrible. Pregnancy is not about holy sacrifice (and any ideology that tells other people how to be wonderful and self-sacrificing really creeps me out, which is why I’m not a liberal), but about just being an adult and doing your job, rather than killing your unborn baby.
Octobur says: I LOVE how the pro-life people always call us pro-choice people fanatics, and crazies, and never look at the reasons as to why a lot of women get abortions. Yes there are people that abuse the right, but not every woman does.
I am pro-choice.
You don’t see pro-choice people going around with signs of pictures of fetus’ and such. And the doctors do tell you everything. Of course, they sugar coat it like every doctor does with everything. You have to go in for an appointment for an ultra-sound, to talk to a doctor, get bloodwork, all that fun stuff.
Just because you have sex, does not mean you are ready for a child. And they shouldn’t be used as a “punishment.” (although pro-lifers despise it when someone says that.) Condoms and birth control don’t always work. People are ready to do things at different times. I don’t condone teenagers and young adults going out and having sex all the time, and then when they get pregnant just being like, “Oh, abortion time!” But that really doesn’t happen as much as people make it out to be. People who get married may not want kids, but that doesn’t mean that they can’thave sex.
frank says: I stand corrected both in spelling and comprehension. However, I firmly hold to and believe in my argument. Women who have abortions when it is not a life saving measure/medical procedure can be easily compared to men who father babies then abandon them–and their families. The only difference is that the men are a bit less ruthless in not snuffing out an innocent life! It’s a tragedy, a travesty, that so many millions of lives have been taken since, and before, Rove vs. wade. Instead of using abortion as a contraceptive why not just use contraceptives! Now go call your mom and thank her for giving you life and tell your ‘life partner’ to use a condom next time you fool around. = ) Oh yeah, I believe you may think my ‘your mom gave you life’ argument is terrible just because it might make you feel guilty about the possibility of one day having an abortion and cause you look at yourself for the selfish, self-centered person you may (possible may) very well be.
My apologies, Kirroth.
frank says: ‘Pregnancy is not about holy sacrifice (and any ideology that tells other people how to be wonderful and self-sacrificing really creeps me out…’ Roxie, you obviously don’t have children of you own. I can say with all honesty (straight face and all, having watched my wife and cared for her through 4 pregnancies) that pregnancy IS A HOLY SACRIFICE and requires a great amount of sacrifice from both parents after a child is born. A friend once told me that our kids really never know how much we sacrifice for them. I suppose what creeps you out is the fact that you’ll have to give up some much of ‘you’ to give to a new life you bring into the world. And no, I understand that it’s not my job to tell others how to be wonderful
and self-sacrificing. However, many young people have never seemed to have be taught to respect human life, especially in its most vunerable form. Didn’t someone once say that a society can be judged by how it treats its weakest members? Maybe a little self-sacrifice would do you good anyway.
My father – a father of four whom he loves to distraction – would NEVER talk to another woman, especially one he does not know, the way you’ve talked to me. He wouldn’t presume to know about people’s lives the way you’ve arrogantly presumed to know mine. Being Catholic, he believes that whole thing about God being the judge of men’s hearts, not men.
I would be humiliated if he did, which is why I hope your children never find out how you act towards other people on the internet.
My co-workers (I’m a lawyer with the pro-life movement) don’t feel the need to condescend to other people the way you tried to do so to me. They don’t run around saying gag-worthy things like, “Maybe a little self-sacrifice would do you good anyway,” because, being happy with their lives and secure in the good they do for the world, don’t need to piss on anyone else.
That gets me to the meat of this: you tried to insult me, but you really just wound up giving all of Cassy’s readers an overdose of Frank TMI. What you just wrote is obviously not about me, Roxe – it couldn’t be, you don’t even know me – it’s about Frank.
What you’ve inadvertently told us – and it just makes me embarrassed for you – is that you were a total self-absorbed shithead until you knocked up your wife and had to take your life from 100% about you to 99% about you (give or take 1% on the latter). You had no idea what kids were like, had lived your life looking out for number 1, and are resentful of the way you think you haven’t received your due from life (and probably resent your kids, too).
It’s actually just embarrassing on your behalf. Just as embarrassing as your anti-kirroth screed, if not more so for the fact that I’m the second pro-lifer you’ve attacked today. How pathetic….
Oh, hell, I missed Frank’s comment #9:
FUCK YOU, FRANK.
Life partner? I’m chaste and waiting for marriage. Run around maybe having an abortion? Funny – I’m pro-life. Selfish sex? Every time a boyfriend asks me, I point out that it’s not about him, it’s not about me, but about our psyches, our souls, and the life we might create, and then refuse to have sex.
Do me a favour, Frank. Take your four-inch wanker, cut it off, and go fuck yourself up the ass with it… or give me your address, because I’m more than happy to hunt you down and do it for you.
frank says: Wow! You’re pretty vulgar and profane. Your dad know you talk to other people like that on the internet? And like I wrote, you probably don’t have children of your own and you have no idea of the sacrifices it takes to raise kids. You’re an angry little woman. Maybe motherhood would give you a different perspective on life. Have a good day.
Sorry the comment section on this site has turned into a place for ranting, angry women to let off some steam.
ROFLMAO.
Just like everything else you wrote about me – like me not know about the sacrifices of child rearing – “angry little woman” is comically off. Look, ‘Spic, I’m 5’9. I got my height from my dad, who is 6’4 and a former DI athlete.
Had you said to my face what you wrote to me here earlier, with my dad standing there (a big supposition, because you’re a total coward, and if the height didn’t scare you, the flaming red hair would), there would not have been a need for me to reply to you, since the “reply” from the de Luca family would have come in the form of a hand around your neck and another finger in your face, and a rather terse statement about the falsity of your words and how it’s in your best interests to not repeat them again.
I’m sorry that your sexist culture does not recognise that red-blooded American men do not idly by while their chaste, public-interest lawyer daughters get insulted by trash. Trash you are, and you’ve insulted me, insulted kirroth, and can’t recognise that YOU are the problem here.
Cas, if he sticks around, I’m still reading, but I don’t need this in my life.
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