Originally posted at David Horowitz’s Newsreal:
Pro-abortion radicals will try to use any tool in their arsenal to dehumanize the unborn. They have to, if they want to be able to convince women to keep abortion common. After all, the pro-abortion line has never truly been about choice. There’s only one acceptable choice, and that choice is abortion. But if women continue to think that what they’re growing inside them when they’re pregnant is an actual human being, then pro-abortion fanatics have a problem. Choice USA decided that there was a simple way to fix this problem: show how ridiculous the idea that an unborn baby is an actual person is by pointing out that, erm, unborn babies can’t play tennis … and, um, therefore can’t be a real person. Makes sense, huh?
Of course, it’s not just tennis. In what is supposed to be a “humorous” video, a pregnant woman is told that she must split a bill between two people three ways (because her unborn child is a person), must play doubles tennis instead of singles (because her unborn child is a person), and must buy two tickets to a movie (because her unborn child is a person).
Gee, weren’t you just rolling on the floor laughing? The femisogynists have truly astounded us with their wit and sharp sense of humor. I guess they really proved that whole humorless feminazi stereotype wrong, huh?
All joking aside (literally), this video is utterly ridiculous. Yeah, yeah — the premise is simple. None of the scenarios in the video make sense, and calling a fetus a person doesn’t make sense, either. But a person’s worth is not measured by any of the idiotic things this video lamely tried to joke about. Quadriplegics can’t play tennis. Are they not people? A two-year-old out for a lunch date with Mommy can’t pay for his share of the bill. Does the two-year-old not count, either? The idea that personhood has anything whatsoever to do with the activities a person can take part in is ludicrous, and Choice USA knows it. They also know that most pregnant women instinctively know that what is growing inside of them is a person, and not a clump of cells or a bit of tissue or a fetus. It’s a baby.
A baby can’t play tennis or go to a movie or pay for a bill, but we don’t allow babies to be murdered after they’re born, do we? Of course, what’s really curious is how an actual radical pro-abortion feminist would feel if they were to actually carry a child. What about an abortion extremist like, say, Feministing founder and feminazi extraordinaire Jessica Valenti?
Radical femisogynist Jessica Valenti recently gave birth to a little girl. And while I doubt this subject is one she’ll ever broach, I have to say, I would love to know her thoughts. See, I’m pregnant right now. I’ve heard my baby’s heartbeat. I’ve seen the heart beating on an ultrasound. I’ve seen my baby kick its little legs and suck its thumb. I felt my baby move for the first time just a few days ago. I know exactly what I’m carrying, and yes, it’s a person. I could see the eyes and the smile, I could make out a profile with a forehead, nose, and lips. I could see the little fingers and toes. It isn’t some kind of meaningless bunch of tissue inside of me, it’s a person. A little person, yes, but a person.
When Valenti heard her baby’s heart beating, did she think it was just an abortable clump of cells? When she saw her daughter moving in her uterus, was it a fetus or a baby? When she felt her baby kicking, did she have any doubt about what she was carrying? If she had miscarried (and thank goodness she didn’t), would she have thought she lost some fetal tissue or would she have thought she lost her baby? A pregnant woman knows the truth. It’s why so many women feel they need to lie to themselves or avoid an ultrasound before an abortion. If they were to admit the truth to themselves, they wouldn’t be able to live with themselves.
These are questions she’ll probably never answer. (She blogged about her pregnancy only once.) To answer truthfully would be to undermine what she’s spent years fighting for. After all, when you see the little baby squirming and moving on that ultrasound screen, there’s no doubt about what it is. But to admit that a pregnant woman is carrying a baby, and not a meaningless clump of cells, would be to open Pandora’s Box for pro-abortion radicals like Valenti. If it’s a baby, then to abort it is murder. Quite a sticky situation for a femisogynist to get herself into, isn’t it?
An unborn baby may not be able to play tennis, but it has a beating heart and a life growing inside its mother’s uterus. That truth is indisputable, no matter how many bad jokey videos pro-abortion radicals make trying to convince you otherwise.
Randy says: Cassy, have you seen this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RAAhTL4Arg&feature=player_embedded
It is disturbing from the Fabian Society in England who are the same as the progressives here in the USA.
Wayne says: You have to remember, Cassy, that Ms. Valenti hasn’t been arguing against life, but for the choice of the mother to have a child when she wants to and also have sex whenever she wants to without those nasty consequences. Her having a child doesn’t mean that she hasn’t had several abortions in the past previously and doesn’t make her a hypocrite, it only means that she decided it was okay for this particular child to be born at this particular time. (that is not to say that I know Ms. Valenti has had multiple abortions, nor even one – I don’t know that answer.)
Also, we have to be careful in equating personhood with distinguishable characteristics, as you know. If the child is a child when we can see it on an ultrasound or hear it’s heartbeat, etc. then arguments against abortifacient drugs become very difficult. I know your position on all these things, and I agree with them, but we do need to be careful in how we use our logic so as to not make it easy for the pro-abortion side to use our arguments against us.
Because unborn babies are smaller and weaker than adults, therefore they obviously shouldn’t have the same legal rights as adults.
Likewise, because women are usually smaller and weaker than men, therefore they obviously shouldn’t have the same legal rights as men.
That’s the principle that feminists have been fighting for all these years, isn’t it?
Oh, wait, that broke down somewhere.
JimmyC says: Whoever made that video was a fetus at some point, who was incapable of making lame-ass propaganda videos at the time, so does that mean that (s)he should have been aborted?
A says: You’re an asshole:
http://jessicavalenti.com/?p=618
(Note the bottom paragraph. Yeah, she really hates pregnant women.)
How dare you criticize her for only blogging about her pregnancy once – pregnancy is an intensely personal experience, and all women deserve to share it (or not) in the ways they see fit. She doesn’t owe you or anybody else a front row seat to her uterus.
Just because a woman gives birth does not mean she automatically decides it’s okay to tell other women what’s best for them and their families. 60% of women who have abortions already have children – often their reason is because they fear that they don’t have the resources to care for two children, and having another baby will negatively impact their existing child. Anti-choicers delight when pro-choicers have babies, thinking that NOW we’ll all of a sudden flip and demand that compulsory pregnancy be enforced by the state. (What was that about freedom and government intervention into private citizens’ lives again?) In reality, it’s the opposite – pregnancy reinforces how important it is that women be able to decide when and how they experience it, and how important it is to respect women’s right to control their own bodies.
My mother was pro-choice before she had me, and she’s pro-choice now, and I’m glad for that. I love my mother – I would never want to be born under circumstances that would negatively impact her life. I love it when idiots like Jimmy use the “how would you feel if YOU were aborted?” bit. You know what? I’d be fine with it, because I wouldn’t exist, and I’m fine with that too. The idea that the world would be so radically different had I or anybody else not been born is selfish and foolish. I am not a unique or special snowflake, and neither are you, and I don’t think I am so amazing that the fetus version of me would be worth ruining my mother’s life for, had she had been in a situation where that was a concern.
Because my mother had access to birth control and education (thanks to radical feminists and pro-choice activists), she was able to plan her family, and had me when she was really ready and I was really wanted. And I am so, so, so grateful for that – it’s made both my life and my mother’s life that much happier and healthier. Pro-choice is pro-woman, pro-family, and really more pro-life than you’ll ever be.
But I don’t expect you to get that. At all. And I certainly hope you (or any other women) experiences a situation where they’re forced to learn this first-hand.
A says: correction: And I certainly hope you (or any other women) NEVER experiences a situation where they’re forced to learn this first-hand.
[…] few years ago, Choice USA released a video about pregnancy that was just hilarious. To show how ridiculous the idea of a fetus being a person is, a pregnant […]
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