[DossarLX ODI]

Originally Posted by the sun fan

there isn't a middle ground
there doesn't need to be a middle ground

When this topic turned into a political issue, it was effectively ruined.

1. Culturally people HAVE to obsess splitting everyone into two buckets (in this case it is pro-choice and pro-life, although there are many other topics).

The introduction of those labels encourage demonizing the other side (i.e. "you are an enemy, I'm right and you're wrong so shut up"). If you're not pro-life, you're pro-death. If you're not pro-choice, you're anti-choice. The naming is specifically done the way it is to incriminate anyone that doesn't want to be placed under a certain bucket.

And now we're in this mess where a bunch of people are trying to appear morally superior, resulting in chains of "anti-choice forced birthers!" and "pro-death baby killers!" in addition to stressful legal battles. Literally if the legal crap just stopped, and the labels went away, think about what could move forward with that.

2. Abuse of hypotheticals to the point that the woman is forgotten.

Originally Posted by the sun fan

I was not aware that many pro-life women who get abortions view themselves as special cases, that one was new and eye-opening.

The problem with trying to contain abortion to just an abstract discussion is that people forget these are real people we are talking about.

Originally Posted by DossarLX ODI

The last paragraph sounds very similar to adoption, although it does hammer home the point that the people we are talking about are women with real emotions and feelings, and going through a pregnancy can be physically and mentally traumatic. Any person who treats pregnancy like an insignificant theoretical topic is degrading the woman, to say the least.

I'll see trolls gaslight with comments like:
- "Killing babies is immoral!"
- "Keep it in your pants, actions have consequences!"

And then someone closely related, or even themselves, gets pregnant. It's all fun and games until it actually happens in real life. It's a wake-up call that it's easy to dismiss a woman in an abstract idea, and then biology and life circumstances kick in.

Take some more of the testimonials from DaBackpack's link as an extension to this point:

"In 1973, after Roe v. Wade, abortion became legal but had to be performed in a hospital. That of course was changed later. For the first 'legal abortion day' I had scheduled five procedures. While scrubbing between cases, I was accosted by the Chief of the OB/Gyn service. He asked me, 'How many children are you going to kill today?' My response, out of anger, was a familiar vulgar retort. About three months later, this born-again Christian called me to explain that he was against abortion but his daughter was only a junior in high school and was too young to have a baby and he was also afraid that if she did have a baby she would not want to put it up for adoption. I told him he did not need to explain the situation to me. 'All I need to know', I said, 'is that SHE wants an abortion.' Two years later I performed a second abortion on her during her college break. She thanked me and pleaded, 'Please don't tell my dad, he is still anti-abortion.'" (Physician, Washington State)

Bolded part above is an example of the gaslighting, but then the same guy has somebody close (his daughter) fall into that situation. So much for the hypothetical/abstract discussion. The world is a messy place and people need to realize we can't just stick to abstract discussions. We're dealing with real people here.

"My first encounter with this phenomenon came when I was doing a 2-week follow-up at a family planning clinic. The woman's anti-choice values spoke indirectly through her expression and body language. She told me that she had been offended by the other women in the abortion clinic waiting room because they were using abortion as a form of birth control, but her condom had broken so she had no choice! I had real difficulty not pointing out that she did have a choice, and she had made it! Just like the other women in the waiting room." (Physician, Ontario)

Bolded part is another example of how reality kicks in. Again, this is about real people.

"I've had several cases over the years in which the anti-abortion patient had rationalized in one way or another that her case was the only exception, but the one that really made an impression was the college senior who was the president of her campus Right-to-Life organization, meaning that she had worked very hard in that organization for several years. As I was completing her procedure, I asked what she planned to do about her high office in the RTL organization. Her response was a wide-eyed, 'You're not going to tell them, are you!?' When assured that I was not, she breathed a sigh of relief, explaining how important that position was to her and how she wouldn't want this to interfere with it." (Physician, Texas)

I like this testimonial as it illustrates a few realizations from the college senior:
- That she spent years of hard work to get to where she was, but it could go down the drain very quickly.
- That because of the demonizing attitude of the abortion topic, she now has to worry about the information spreading around.

The irony here is that the narrative is usually "it's an inconvenience" but this woman realizes it could seriously impact her future.

"I had a patient about ten years ago who traveled up to New York City from South Carolina for an abortion. I asked her why she went such a long way to get the procedure. Her answer was that she was a member of a church group that didn't believe in abortion and she didn't want anyone to know she was having one. She planned to return to the group when she went back to South Carolina." (Physician, New York)

Again, how's that for irony? These people know full well how much the topic is stigmatized, and now have to worry about their own privacy.