Shrinking the anti-choice movement
It has been an opinion of mine for some time that the modern anti-choice movement is really the anti-sex movement in new clothes. They kinda lost the anti-sex battle, mainly to commercialism, but also to a realization that sex, although scary and fraught with enormous consequences, is not teh ultimate evil that the puritans have been insisting that it is. So the prudes are now fighting a new battle: you may be able to have sex you slut, but you will suffer the consequences!
But they claim they are protecting unborn children! In fact, many anti-choice activists equate abortion with child murder. I think this is absurd, and moreover, I don't think anti-choice activists actually believe this. Certainly, their actual policy positions don't seem to support this view. Here is a table from Ampersand on Alas, a blog, that analyzes specific anti-abortion policies, and shows how they are aimed not at protecting "unborn children", but at punishing women (click to enlarge):
Ampersand concludes:
Their relative lack of concern about fertility clinics is another telling example: lots of embryos are destroyed (mass murder!), but since no one had sex making them, no one needs to be punished or shamed. So you don't see them out there picketing and screaming and lobbying Congress to have it stopped.
But they claim they are protecting unborn children! In fact, many anti-choice activists equate abortion with child murder. I think this is absurd, and moreover, I don't think anti-choice activists actually believe this. Certainly, their actual policy positions don't seem to support this view. Here is a table from Ampersand on Alas, a blog, that analyzes specific anti-abortion policies, and shows how they are aimed not at protecting "unborn children", but at punishing women (click to enlarge):
Ampersand concludes:Almost none of their policies make sense if they really see no difference between the death of a fetus and the death of a four-year-old. However, nearly all their policies make sense if they’re seeking to make sure that women who have sex are punished. After years of seeing this pattern repeated again and again, it’s difficult to take them at their word.Now I don't agree with every entry on the chart. For example, I bet there are many anti-choice activists who don't think abortion is as bad as child murder, but still believe it is very wrong. Thus, they can condemn clinic bombers and other murderers without any moral inconsistency. But I do agree with the overall argument that anti-choicers seem more interested in seeing that women suffer for having sex than in protecting embryos.
Their relative lack of concern about fertility clinics is another telling example: lots of embryos are destroyed (mass murder!), but since no one had sex making them, no one needs to be punished or shamed. So you don't see them out there picketing and screaming and lobbying Congress to have it stopped.
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