On January 22, America celebrated the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling establishing a woman’s right to make private, personal choices about abortion and childbirth. Yet 30 years later, the legacy of the procedure’s illegality—compounded by jeering protesters and anti-abortion legislators—still finds activists and providers on the defensive, protecting “choice” while sidestepping shrinking public support. Even though… return to article
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Reader Comments (8)Page 1 of 1 pagesThis article effectively overcomes abortion’s stigma as well by never actually mentioning what the stigma is.
Eleanor Bader writes, “What’s more, everyone knows that pregnant women have three options: adoption, abortion, childbirth.”
Where is the stigma? Let’s rewrite it WITH the stigma. “Everyone knows that pregnant women have three options: adoption, MURDER or childbirth.”
Actually, adoption assumes a child is given birth. So really only two choices here: Childbirth or murder.
The attempted demythologization of the word “baby” when referring to “that living something” inside a woman has apparently failed. We can see this in Fitzsimmons statement, “Women don’t use the word fetus. They call it a baby. We think it’s ok for providers to use the language women use.” Serious questions have to be raised: Why would a women need a help-line to discuss the demise of what they themselves call a “baby.” Would a women who seriously considered “it” just a fetus, just a parasite, just a choice have any real need to discuss their guilt or moral agony if “it” is just an “it”?
When will we as a nation realize that the greatest human rights violation in the world is the legalized murder of unborn “babies.”
The fact that 30 years later abortion advocates are still trying to find a palatable language for murder argues more for the moral and mental gymnastics involved than for abortion’s ease of cultural acceptance.
Posted by Kelty on Jan 29, 2003 at 10:30 PM The stigma is, and continues to be, that the woman who chooses her own life (however you interpret it) above that of a cluster of cells is somehow a murderer, that she is unclean or impure, or that she is weak or even evil.
When a fetus develops to the point where expulsion from the uterus does not immediately equate death, that is the point at which it is alive, and the point at which it is a baby. It can support its own bodily functions by breathing, wailing, or enacting otherwise human gestures.
I wonder if pro-life supporters along this line of thinking have serious internal conflicts while eating chicken eggs, which by the fetus=baby mentality, are simply murdered baby chickens.
Shame on you for enjoying that hard-boiled egg on your chef’s salad. Boycott eggs, and start a pro-hatching movement.
Posted by kirsten on Jan 30, 2003 at 11:14 PM Kelty’s comments make me wonder if abortion is something she’s ever had to think about seriously. For those of us who have, we know it’s a tough decision, but why bring a baby into the world that is going to be left in a dumpster to die, that will be neglected or abused by it’s parents, that won’t get a chance to live a normal and decent life because its parents don’t have jobs or are too young.
These are all things to think about. The stigma definitely comes from people thinking of fetuses as babies. A fetus is a cluster of cells that forms into a baby. Must fetuses that are aborted are done at very early gestational age, when a lot of pregnancies end in miscarriage anyway.
I think that we need to let people know that abortion isn’t anything to be afraid of. It’s a choice, often made because the parent(s) are educated and they know that they won’t be able to support that child and give it a good life.
Posted by Jessica on Jan 31, 2003 at 10:28 PM Kirsten, your analogy of the chicken egg doesn’t hold. Chicken eggs meant for consumption are unfertilized and thus would never hatch.
Posted by Michael Aragaon on Feb 2, 2003 at 2:02 PM We must keep Abortion, safe, legal & available to all women.
It’s between the woman. her Dr. & her God.-Ret. R.N.
Posted by Annamary Waldon on Feb 3, 2003 at 2:24 AM Women aren’t the only ones who experience serious life crisis. Legal abortion will remain an ultimate unsavory behavior but it can be forgiven if one truly regrets its advocation. Pro choice is all about human defiance. The challenge is to love, really love the pro choicer who only needs some thinking reordered.
Posted by gayle on Feb 5, 2003 at 10:48 PM A fetus, baby, whatever you want to call it, is more than just a cluster of cells. It has a heartbeat, fingers, toes, and nerves that allow it to feel absolutely everything as it is stabbed in the head and then has it’s brains sucked out.
The more advanced science and technology get, the more people realize this is not just disposable tissue, and that’s why even abortion advocates are now even calling the thing their disposing of a baby. I don’t know about you but to me stabbing a baby in the head and sucking it’s brains out sounds a little iffy.
I’m not saying a women in financial trouble, lack of male support, or whatever her problem should be, should be forced to raise a baby. That would be hypocritical. But like stated in this article, she can give it up for adoption. In a country where thousands of people want to adopt and can’t, thousands of “babies” are disposed of.
Posted by Emma on Nov 25, 2003 at 9:53 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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Also by Eleanor J. Bader
- Bible Gets Girly Makeover
- When History Catches Up
- Moving on Just Fine
Web site allows women to share positive aspects of abortion - Doing It for Themselves
Brooklyn group brings leadership skills to young women - Terrible Beauty
- Beyond Choice
On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, overcoming abortion’s stigma
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