Those who claim to be "Pro Life" are LYING

[RoadRage]

A friend & I had a lengthy discussion last night about all things politics. I brought up my in-laws and said "Well, they're typical Christian Conservatives - Anti Gay, Pro Life".

She stopped me right there and said "Nope, I bet they're not Pro-Life, they're "Pro-Birth". I hadn't heard that phrase before, and asked her to elaborate. She went on to say almost every person she's met who claims to be a staunch "Pro-Life" supporter is always against abortion, but has no problem with the death penalty or sending 4,000 troops to their deaths in Iraq (never mind the innocent Iraqi's who have also died).

They also seem to have no issue with dropping all support for those same babies they fight tooth & nail for once they're out of the womb. They need welfare, WIC, etc? Too bad - they should have thought about that before they were born. They need to be rescued and put into foster homes to be saved from drug addict parents who abuse them? The same Christian Conservatives who march in front of the abortion clinics are thinking "Well, someone else can save those kids.. I don't have time - I have to get to my bible study group, and get ready for my next abortion protest".

I thought she made a GREAT point!

So, I will no longer be referring to my in-laws, or any other "Christian Conservatives" as Pro-Life. They are merely "PRO-BIRTH".

[grannylib]

1. Good for her! There are several folks I know who have been using

that phrase for years now; wish the MSM would pick up that crucial piece of framing...
because of course, most of the "pro-life" crowd is anything but. Anti-abortion, as you say, but many (not all, certainly, but many) are also ardent death-penalty supporters and very opposed to any post-birth support (at least, not until they become Wall Street moguls, and then the Corporate Welfare Kings are just fine and dandy)

[Gold Metal Flake]

2. You might consider the phrase "pro-fetus".

After all, once the fetus is born, Republicers could not give a shit about it.

[gateley]

5. THAT lasers in on it! Pro Fetus. Perfect. nt

[patrice]

3. It seems to me that I heard of the Seamless Cloak of Life ethic as far back as Catholic highschool.

Here's some background info regarding Cardinal Bernardin who was responsible for popularizing this ethic on a national scale http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=10192&pid=789

Real Pro-Life is anti-War and anti-Capitol Punishment. There are very FEW real Pro-Lifers. Pro-Life was co-opted and bastardized by fascists both in the Catholic Church and amongst Protestant congregations for the pruposes of political power.

You still see letters to the editor in our papers, from people saying how radically Pro-Life they are and they talk about NOTHING but fetuses. If Pro-Life were the real deal, Bush's War would never have happened. Instead, you have people going around publicly thanking "God" that they're dying over there and not here. This IS a Pro-Death culture.

[mac2]

9. A church run by men who have no children (that we know of)

tell families what to do with their lives. Women aren't really respected by them.

[patrice]

11. Are you Catholic? nt

[mac2]

13. Had opportunity to be but said no.

[RoadRage]

19. Yup.. part of the reason I left the Catholic Church..

8 years of grade school.. mass every Monday & Thursday... cute little uniforms, and many priest, nuns and lay-person educators who focused much more on doctorine then making sure kids were educated or even interested. I left in 8th grade and "vowed" to never go back. Aside from an occasional wedding or funeral, i've held true to that promise.

I just read a long article in Time last night about Ratzinger's arrival to the US next week.. to me it's no more then pomp & circumstance. Ohh.. and he's happy with the US because we're taking a fight to those pesky muslims who now lay claim to the largest religion in the world. The Catholic church has always allied itself with whomever it deems politically convinient. Yuck.

[wolfgirl]

14. On target..

I never refer to someone as pro-life, it's always Anti-Choice or anti-privacy. The whole argument rests on what our basic freedoms are and how the neocons are actually targeting those freedoms (specifically the right to privacy).

[OhioBlue]

4. I refer to them as

"against a woman's right to have control over her own body".

I used to use the phrase "against a woman's right to choose", but after I had an ectopic and my cousin went through premature rupture of membranes and lost her babies, I really think "against a woman's right to have control over her own body" is appropriate. I support a woman's right to choose, but I also think it goes much deeper and at times, no matter how much we want the pregnancy to work out, it won't. And, we need to have the legal means to terminate such pregnancies to save the lives of women. We also need to remember that women go through nine months of pregnancy, give birth and in most cases assume responsibility for the child if the father is unwilling. So, it is a women's rights issue by all means.

My great grandmother died from an unsafe abortion. She had 3 children that she was struggling to take care of. Her husband was an alcoholic that didn't support the family. My grandmother and her siblings grew up with family members. I had a friend in HS that committed suicide once she discovered she was pregnant. It is a serious issue. Women need to have the ability to have control over their bodies. They also need support systems for themselves and their babies. Which goes back to your point. If we have a society that supports mothers we have less fear and desperation for women that find themselves in the position to make such choices.

[Mendocino]

6. "If you want republicans to care about you,

crawl back into the womb."

A great quote from rackjite.

[Gold Metal Flake]

7. There's a bumper sticker. nt

[mac2]

8. Great way of saying you aren't safe out here with Republicans

[mac2]

10. Hope you don't let them scare you into having more

children than you want or can afford. Today is a lot different than years ago. If you don't go to college or have a trade you are behind others who do.

[backscatter712]

12. "Pro-life" is dog-whisling for total misogynistic domination of women.

The misogynists amongst us can't openly say "Women should be barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen!" without being rightfully called out for it, so instead, they play these games.

They use the code words - listen to any fundamentalist and you'll hear them, and they'll talk about wedge issues like gay rights and abortion.

It's dog-whistling - it's pandering to those who would exercise Taliban-like domination over women, without actually saying it.

They disguise their sexism by exercising "concern" over the lives of the unborn, but you see the real game when these same individuals turn around and not give a shit for the same lives after they're born - the truth is that they don't really give a shit about the life of the fetus, they just want to tell women what they can and can't do with their own bodies.

[Echo In Light]

17. Spot on. Rightist rhetoric, aside from being coded, is often projective as well

Imputing to others that which one harbors and/or embodies.

[supernova]

15. FORCED BIRTHERS

is what I call them.

What they are really about is punishing women for having sex.

You had sex and got pregnant?

TOO BAD, now you have to pay the price and take your punishment by going into LABOR.



Useless twats every single one of them.

[Echo In Light]

16. "Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers" - George Carlin

[RoadRage]

20. That's a great line...

Mr. Carlin has a knack for nailing it on the head. :)

[elizfeelinggreat]

18. That's still too kind to them IMO

and they are not kind in any way.

I don't like "pro-birth" because it implies a positive outcome AND it allows them to position us as "pro-death".

Do you see them using "pro-choice"? I don't, they insist on throwing the trigger words "abortion" or "death" in as often as possible.

They don't care about the woman carrying the fetus, they just want to make sure that she has no control. For that reason I really like the line posted earlier best: "If you want republicans to care about you, crawl back into the womb."

[loyalsister]

21. I have met one consistent "pro-lifer"

He actually said "I agree with them about some things, but those conservatives only care about them until they're born."

[Winterblues]

22. A better term is Anti-Choice

If you say pro birth it infers Liberals are anti-birth. You are 100% correct in that they are not Pro-Life but that term allows them to make the claim Liberals are not Pro-Life when the exact opposite is usually the case only Liberals are Pro-Choice completely.