I Don’t Get It

 

When a pregnant woman arrives at the abortion clinic in the morning, she’s carrying a living being within her body. The fetus is swimming around in there, making faces, waving her arms, grabbing her piggy-toes, sucking her thumb, as innocent as a human being can be. When the woman leaves the clinic, that kid is dead. Abortion clinics are places where small human beings are killed, one after another, all day long. I don’t approve of blowing up abortion clinics, but I get the logic of it. Blow it up, and fewer babies die.

And I get the logic, too, of murdering an abortion doctor. Again, I don’t approve of it, but I understand it. Dr. George Tiller was an abortion doctor. When Dr. Tiller walked into a procedure room, the human fetus was alive. When he walked out, the fetus was dead. He—the doctor— directly and deliberately killed thousands of human beings; he specialized in terminating the post-viable fetus and made upwards of a million dollars a year doing it. And no, these were not by and large babies destined to die shortly after birth or live agonizing lives as catastrophically malformed creatures. Their mothers did not want them, and were willing to pay, in cash, for Dr. Tiller to kill them. So he did.

He did not find either social mores or the law an impediment to his profitable work:

[…W]e are able to use the wide definition and the full implementation of Roe v. Wade decision which allows us to do post viability terminations of pregnancy. When read appropriately, the Roe v. Wade decision and the Bolton decisions says that, ‘A physician may use his judgement in determining all factors of a woman’s health, physical health, mental health, emotional health, family health, age of the patient, safety and well being.’ That’s the definition in the Roe v. Wade and the Bolton decision… The Bolton decision goes on to say that they understand that this allows wide latitude…”
Dr. Tiller, addressing the Feminist Majority Foundation in 2008

If you believe that abortion is the willful killing of a defenseless human child, then Dr. Tiller was a mass murderer or, as Mother Theresa put it, he was a mass “assassin-for-hire.” Why wouldn’t you want to stop him?

When asked why the Allies did not bomb Auschwitz, the answer boiled down to this: The priority was to win the war.

The pro-life movement wants to win the war. The goal is for abortion to become not just illegal but unthinkable.

Still, it is not hard to see why the more impatient Pro-Lifer might remember that story about the starfish on the beach and think: Okay, I can’t save all of the babies, but I can save the babies who otherwise would’ve died at this clinic, or by this hand, on this day.

What is the logic that drives the pro-choice group Jane’s Revenge to firebomb Crisis Pregnancy Centers, or CPCs?

I’ve been informed that the pro-choice movement is not actually pro-abortion; Pro-choicers want a pregnant woman to be able to choose freely from among her available options. Abortion is supposed to be only one of those options.

Abortion is, however, the only choice supported or enabled by an abortion clinic. Planned Parenthood, while claiming to provide comprehensive women’s healthcare, does not provide prenatal care, does not arrange for adoption, and does not help a single mother with resources for raising her child. Which isn’t too surprising nor even, in itself, reprehensible: Despite its name, “Planned Parenthood” is not about parenthood, it’s about sex. Facilitating, enabling, cleaning-up-after … and that’s okay! A given facility doesn’t have to provide all the choices in order to count itself pro-choice.

However, even before Jane’s Revenge began firebombing Crisis Pregnancy Centers, the abortion industry and its legions of ideological allies have done their best to delegitimize, stigmatize or even outlaw them. Google “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” and the first item to pop up is a warning from none other than Planned Parenthood about “Crisis Pregnancy Centers also known as fake clinics” (together, naturally, with an invitation to Donate to PP!). CPCs have “a shady, harmful agenda: to scare, shame, or pressure you out of getting an abortion, and to tell lies about abortion, birth control, and sexual health.

Doesn’t it seem odd that the Pro-Choice movement objects to the existence of facilities that seek to make women’s other choices more plausible?

Crisis Pregnancy Centers are almost entirely volunteer-run and donor-funded, supported, and staffed at the grassroots. They vary considerably in what they can offer, and it would certainly be possible to find ones that don’t offer much of anything besides exhortations to refrain from aborting an unborn child, but an exhortation —however vehement it might be—is not oppression nor—God knows—violence. Nobody dies at even the worst Crisis Pregnancy Center, and the best are astonishing in the range and generosity of their services.

Human beings are injured and die at abortion clinics. You can deny that a fetus is human or alive and discount its death if you wish, but women have died as a result of injuries sustained at abortion clinics. A human being does not risk a lacerated cervix, perforated uterus, hemorrhage, infection, drug reaction, or septicemia when she submits to the ministrations on offer at a Crisis Pregnancy Center. Nobody is medically injured or killed in a procedure in a CPC, for the very simple reason that “procedures” are not performed there. (Note: “Abortion is healthcare” requires signing off on that old patriarchal-medicine belief that pregnancy is a disease rather than a natural biological process undertaken by a healthy female body).

Sadly, I don’t find it especially mysterious that Planned Parenthood, Inc. objects to “fake clinics”; Every unhappily pregnant woman who chooses something other than abortion takes a piece out of Planned Parenthood’s bottom line. (How amazing, that PP can persuade ordinary people to give them money to “support” what is clearly a money-making operation? It’s as if Walmart went around asking for donations so they could combat the “fake store” run by the Salvation Army.)

This, again, does not mean that a CPC is necessarily a good thing. I think it is, of course, but I don’t object to free ultrasounds, counseling that emphasizes the humanity of the fetus, free referrals to adoption agencies, free diapers, baby clothes, support groups for pregnant girls and women, help with accessing obstetrical care and financial support for new young families and no, I don’t object to the crucifixes on the walls or attempts at Christian evangelism. If you find it horrifying that your local CPC might be telling young women that Jesus loves them and their babies, fine. There is nothing that prevents a Unitarian Universalist church from creating a UU CPC (“we’re not sure anyone loves you, and your baby is a white male and thus destined to be an oppressor, but here are some biodegradable diapers, an organic cotton onesie, and some cruelty-free vegan prenatal vitamins…”).

Even if it’s pushing Christ, it’s hard to see how your local CPC represents the kind of threat to human life that could justify firebombing, even to a fully-fundamentalist Wokester with the now-characteristically Jesuitical conception of what constitutes “harm.”

The same is true for the intended murder of a Supreme Court Justice; When Roe is officially overturned, as it appears it shall be, the question of abortion will return to the states. In some states, that will indeed mean increased legal restrictions on the practice of abortion. In others, abortion will continue as it has all along. Women in anti-abortion states may resort to illegal abortion, but the law will not force them to do so. CPCs will continue to support pregnant women and offer alternatives.

Nothing will prevent Planned Parenthood from continuing to provide what it claims to be 97% of its services in no-abortion states: They can go right on providing birth control and pap smears and the occasional breast exam (Planned Parenthood does not offer mammography, FYI).

Most important, thanks to the First Amendment, nothing will prevent the pro-choice movement from continuing to make its best, most convincing arguments for legalizing abortion on demand through all nine months in each and every state.

Were I still in favor of abortion, I’d like to think I would find the almost-instant recourse to violence on the so-called “fringe” of the progressive left a bit bewildering. After all, as I’ve been repeatedly and recently informed by leftist friends and relatives, the left is the side of non-violence, of peace, of the resolution of problems without resorting to the use of force.

Still, nearly everyone would agree that there are times in which violence or the threat thereof is, regrettably, the only and best option available to those seeking to prevent murder.

This unspoken agreement allows reasonable people to debate whether the allies should have bombed Auschwitz, but it also permits an ordinary, stout-hearted, decent man or woman to earnestly wish he might have been present, with a weapon, at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC, and been able to stop or kill Dylan Roof before Roof could kill nine innocent churchgoers.

Wishing to bomb Auschwitz, or shoot Dylan Roof does not make one, even in fantasy, a murderer. That same, ordinary, decent man or woman might even be one so devoted to pacifism as to submit to execution rather than violently resist: There is a necessary distinction to be drawn between a willingness to accept violence committed against oneself, and expecting others to do so.

If you can bring yourself to admit that Dr. Tiller was killing human beings, you grasp (and even share, if only partially) the logic of his murderer. One could argue—I remember doing so, back in my pro-choice days—that the logic is so remorseless that all of us must choose between denying the humanity of the fetus on the one hand and terrorism on the other.

Recognize that the fetus is human and alive, and you are surely honor-bound to defend that little person just as one would feel honor-bound to defend (with violence) Dylan Roof’s victims or the prisoners at Auschwitz.

This is, indeed, a vexing problem for the Pro-Lifer, but it pales in comparison with the problem now revealed, by the advent of Jane’s Revenge on the Pro-Choice side.

What drives Jane’s Revenge? The hint is found in the name the group has attached to itself: Theirs isn’t violence intended to prevent violence. Indeed, the group’s manifesto strongly suggests it is violence for its own sake. Having identified what it considers to be a legitimate target, the violence is even “fun.”

“We have demonstrated in the past month how easy and fun it is to attack…We are versatile, we are mercurial, and we answer to no one but ourselves.

This isn’t logic at all, in fact. It is the same morally moronic motive that drove Dylan Roof to murder nine black churchgoers. The opportunity is motive and motive is opportunity.

Published in Religion & Philosophy
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There are 49 comments.

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  1. Manny Coolidge
    Manny
    @Manny

    The pro-abortion crowd will not stop at killing within the nine month pregnancy period. Their criteria is sentience, the ability to be self aware which I think is claimed to be around two years old. Their ultimate aim is infanticide. Just let that sink in.  

    • #31
  2. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    The firebombing of crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life groups may also be just part of the growing trend of political violence for most any grievance. Society would likely benefit from a better understanding of why so many people feel the need to and justification for violence as an acceptable method of making a political point. 

    I have my theories, but I don’t want to derail this thread too far. 

    • #32
  3. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):

    The firebombing of crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life groups may also be just part of the growing trend of political violence for most any grievance. Society would likely benefit from a better understanding of why so many people feel the need to and justification for violence as an acceptable method of making a political point.

    I have my theories, but I don’t want to derail this thread too far.

    I think you’re right. 

    Some of it, surely, is simply the sort of arms race people get into in any kind of conflict. You see this in married couples, too: Look how upset I am! Okay, look how upset I am now! How about now! And before you know it, feelings once expressed (and perhaps relieved) by yelling now require shrieking, and then maybe breaking crockery and then slapping and before you know it…

    Because the Left has zero sense of proportion (“this is as bad as slavery!”), believe their own feelings (“I am outraged!”)  and thus exaggerate compulsively  (“Bush is Literally Hitler! No wait…Trump is Literally Hitler…no really, this time we’re talking Actual Hitler!”) lefties run out of ways to express themselves.  

     

    • #33
  4. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    This seems like a bad idea: “We aren’t incubators! Youth procession delivered baby dolls to Amy Coney Barrett. We aren’t protesting to change the minds of women-hating fascists. We’re calling on the pro-choice majority, on YOU, to get in the streets to STOP #SCOTUS from overturning Roe,” the Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights Twitter account posted along with a video of the protest.

    • #34
  5. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    Has the pro-life movement fielded these protesters as a false-flag thing? 

    • #35
  6. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    Has the pro-life movement fielded these protesters as a false-flag thing?

    Yes, over at Powerline, John Hinderaker titles his post: Get Off My Team? Essentially the same question.

    • #36
  7. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    I keep thinking about the girls bringing the dolls to the march that day… how did they hold them? How difficult was it to avoid looking at the little faces? Images of babies, let alone the babies themselves, are hard for many girls and women to regard without at least a twinge of maternal feeling. 

    I imagine one of those girls, sitting in the back seat of the car she’s carpooling to Justice Coney-Barrett’s neighborhood, catching herself accidentally cradling the doll as if it was a real baby. Hastily, she shifts her grip to something more casual, hoping no one noticed…the other girls, of course, are doing the same. Except for one—there’s always one—who is so extremely self-conscious and perhaps self-loathing that she has to theatrically drop the doll on the floor and stomp on it, making a joke, ha ha! Look how little I care! 

    Which doesn’t help, because of course it’s not real. It’s made of plastic. Just because the plastic is in the form of a baby, you don’t have to care about it, honey-bunny.

    But you do.

    • #37
  8. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    I keep thinking about the girls bringing the dolls to the march that day… how did they hold them? How difficult was it to avoid looking at the little faces? Images of babies, let alone the babies themselves, are hard for many girls and women to regard without at least a twinge of maternal feeling.

    I imagine one of those girls, sitting in the back seat of the car she’s carpooling to Justice Coney-Barrett’s neighborhood, catching herself accidentally cradling the doll as if it was a real baby. Hastily, she shifts her grip to something more casual, hoping no one noticed…the other girls, of course, are doing the same. Except for one—there’s always one—who is so extremely self-conscious and perhaps self-loathing that she has to theatrically drop the doll on the floor and stomp on it, making a joke, ha ha! Look how little I care!

    Which doesn’t help, because of course it’s not real. It’s made of plastic. Just because the plastic is in the form of a baby, you don’t have to care about it, honey-bunny.

    But you do.

    That should have the cojones to bring sonograms an say that these things should be aborted for any reason. I actually kinda like them for saying that they are pro-abortion rights instead of pro-choice but they aren’t honest enough. 

     

    • #38
  9. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    I keep thinking about the girls bringing the dolls to the march that day… how did they hold them? How difficult was it to avoid looking at the little faces? Images of babies, let alone the babies themselves, are hard for many girls and women to regard without at least a twinge of maternal feeling.

    I imagine one of those girls, sitting in the back seat of the car she’s carpooling to Justice Coney-Barrett’s neighborhood, catching herself accidentally cradling the doll as if it was a real baby. Hastily, she shifts her grip to something more casual, hoping no one noticed…the other girls, of course, are doing the same. Except for one—there’s always one—who is so extremely self-conscious and perhaps self-loathing that she has to theatrically drop the doll on the floor and stomp on it, making a joke, ha ha! Look how little I care!

    Which doesn’t help, because of course it’s not real. It’s made of plastic. Just because the plastic is in the form of a baby, you don’t have to care about it, honey-bunny.

    But you do.

    Were these young women allowed to play with dolls when they were little? I’m curious.

    • #39
  10. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    I keep thinking about the girls bringing the dolls to the march that day… how did they hold them? How difficult was it to avoid looking at the little faces? Images of babies, let alone the babies themselves, are hard for many girls and women to regard without at least a twinge of maternal feeling.

    I imagine one of those girls, sitting in the back seat of the car she’s carpooling to Justice Coney-Barrett’s neighborhood, catching herself accidentally cradling the doll as if it was a real baby. Hastily, she shifts her grip to something more casual, hoping no one noticed…the other girls, of course, are doing the same. Except for one—there’s always one—who is so extremely self-conscious and perhaps self-loathing that she has to theatrically drop the doll on the floor and stomp on it, making a joke, ha ha! Look how little I care!

    Which doesn’t help, because of course it’s not real. It’s made of plastic. Just because the plastic is in the form of a baby, you don’t have to care about it, honey-bunny.

    But you do.

    That should have the cojones to bring sonograms an say that these things should be aborted for any reason. I actually kinda like them for saying that they are pro-abortion rights instead of pro-choice but they aren’t honest enough.

     

    Exactly. Show me a picture of a 24 week preemie and say: Sure. It would be just fine to yank that poor little guy’s arm off. Why not, if he’s in my way?

    • #40
  11. HeavyWater Inactive
    HeavyWater
    @HeavyWater

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    I keep thinking about the girls bringing the dolls to the march that day… how did they hold them? How difficult was it to avoid looking at the little faces? Images of babies, let alone the babies themselves, are hard for many girls and women to regard without at least a twinge of maternal feeling.

    I imagine one of those girls, sitting in the back seat of the car she’s carpooling to Justice Coney-Barrett’s neighborhood, catching herself accidentally cradling the doll as if it was a real baby. Hastily, she shifts her grip to something more casual, hoping no one noticed…the other girls, of course, are doing the same. Except for one—there’s always one—who is so extremely self-conscious and perhaps self-loathing that she has to theatrically drop the doll on the floor and stomp on it, making a joke, ha ha! Look how little I care!

    Which doesn’t help, because of course it’s not real. It’s made of plastic. Just because the plastic is in the form of a baby, you don’t have to care about it, honey-bunny.

    But you do.

    That should have the cojones to bring sonograms an say that these things should be aborted for any reason. I actually kinda like them for saying that they are pro-abortion rights instead of pro-choice but they aren’t honest enough.

    I read a pro-abortion article today titled, “Sure, Just Have the Baby.”  The woman who wrote this article reflected on the health struggles she had during her three pregnancies.  She mentioned her first pregnancy when she required an emergency C-section.  Then she went on:

    “Many women who undergo emergency cesarean sections suffer from hemorrhaging and blood clots, including life-threatening pulmonary embolisms. Some women are injured by the procedure itself, which is, after all, major abdominal surgery and can result in a perforated bladder or bowel. Some women suffer from postpartum infections to the incision wound, which can reopen during recovery. Some require additional surgery just to get over the initial surgery.”

    So, I guess the overall point she was making is that women do have a small chance of dying during pregnancy and also have a small chance of suffering major injury during the whole pregnancy process, especially during childbirth itself.  

    But is that enough of a risk to the woman where you would say that she should be allowed to kill her unborn child?  I say no.  That’s why I am pro-life.

    • #41
  12. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    HeavyWater (View Comment):
    So, I guess the overall point she was making is that women do have a small chance of dying during pregnancy and also have a small chance of suffering major injury during the whole pregnancy process, especially during childbirth itself.  

    I’ve suffered a few fairly major injuries in my time…and so what? Nobody gets out alive. This is why people make a bigger fuss about mother’s day than father’s day. 

    • #42
  13. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    Guys! Remember my evil plan for making t-shirts for us to wear in the next Woman’s March?  Bright PP-Pink with quotes from abortionists like Leroy Carhart printed on the back?

    I’ve got a new evil plan: We need baby dolls. Lots and lots of baby dolls. We sent the dolls to a co-conspirator in DC, and he or she brings ’em to the Supreme Court, or wherever the Night of Rage planned by Jane’s Revenge is held, and just hands ’em out.  Or leaves them sitting…lying…littering the ground….For cover, our co-conspirator can mumble something like “YOU ARE NOT AN INCUBATOR!” and whatever other generally true but irrelevant runic sayings he/she can borrow from the other side. “CHILDREN HAVING CHILDREN IS BAD!” etc.

    https://twitter.com/RameshPonnuru/status/1537873071520026629

    • #43
  14. Manny Coolidge
    Manny
    @Manny

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    HeavyWater (View Comment):
    So, I guess the overall point she was making is that women do have a small chance of dying during pregnancy and also have a small chance of suffering major injury during the whole pregnancy process, especially during childbirth itself.

    I’ve suffered a few fairly major injuries in my time…and so what? Nobody gets out alive. This is why people make a bigger fuss about mother’s day than father’s day.

    I’ve said that giving birth is the female version of heroism, like men at war.  Women should be honored for their motherhood.

    • #44
  15. GrannyDude Member
    GrannyDude
    @GrannyDude

    Manny (View Comment):

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    HeavyWater (View Comment):
    So, I guess the overall point she was making is that women do have a small chance of dying during pregnancy and also have a small chance of suffering major injury during the whole pregnancy process, especially during childbirth itself.

    I’ve suffered a few fairly major injuries in my time…and so what? Nobody gets out alive. This is why people make a bigger fuss about mother’s day than father’s day.

    I’ve said that giving birth is the female version of heroism, like men at war. Women should be honored for their motherhood.

    My dad used to say the same thing. Not sure I completely believe it (I visit Dad every year at Arlington…a sobering place for anyone wishing to compare grapefruit to kumquats) but it’s flattering.

    • #45
  16. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    Manny (View Comment):

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    HeavyWater (View Comment):
    So, I guess the overall point she was making is that women do have a small chance of dying during pregnancy and also have a small chance of suffering major injury during the whole pregnancy process, especially during childbirth itself.

    I’ve suffered a few fairly major injuries in my time…and so what? Nobody gets out alive. This is why people make a bigger fuss about mother’s day than father’s day.

    I’ve said that giving birth is the female version of heroism, like men at war. Women should be honored for their motherhood.

    My dad used to say the same thing. Not sure I completely believe it (I visit Dad every year at Arlington…a sobering place for anyone wishing to compare grapefruit to kumquats) but it’s flattering.

    Even the honored dead at Arlington never had to have a large mammal pop out of their junk. 

    • #46
  17. HeavyWater Inactive
    HeavyWater
    @HeavyWater

    Manny (View Comment):

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    HeavyWater (View Comment):
    So, I guess the overall point she was making is that women do have a small chance of dying during pregnancy and also have a small chance of suffering major injury during the whole pregnancy process, especially during childbirth itself.

    I’ve suffered a few fairly major injuries in my time…and so what? Nobody gets out alive. This is why people make a bigger fuss about mother’s day than father’s day.

    I’ve said that giving birth is the female version of heroism, like men at war. Women should be honored for their motherhood.

    To complete the analogy, one could argue for a military draft or a volunteer military.  

    • #47
  18. Manny Coolidge
    Manny
    @Manny

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    Manny (View Comment):

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    HeavyWater (View Comment):
    So, I guess the overall point she was making is that women do have a small chance of dying during pregnancy and also have a small chance of suffering major injury during the whole pregnancy process, especially during childbirth itself.

    I’ve suffered a few fairly major injuries in my time…and so what? Nobody gets out alive. This is why people make a bigger fuss about mother’s day than father’s day.

    I’ve said that giving birth is the female version of heroism, like men at war. Women should be honored for their motherhood.

    My dad used to say the same thing. Not sure I completely believe it (I visit Dad every year at Arlington…a sobering place for anyone wishing to compare grapefruit to kumquats) but it’s flattering.

    Well, until modern medicine the death rate for women giving birth was high. 

    • #48
  19. Manny Coolidge
    Manny
    @Manny

    HeavyWater (View Comment):

    Manny (View Comment):

    GrannyDude (View Comment):

    HeavyWater (View Comment):
    So, I guess the overall point she was making is that women do have a small chance of dying during pregnancy and also have a small chance of suffering major injury during the whole pregnancy process, especially during childbirth itself.

    I’ve suffered a few fairly major injuries in my time…and so what? Nobody gets out alive. This is why people make a bigger fuss about mother’s day than father’s day.

    I’ve said that giving birth is the female version of heroism, like men at war. Women should be honored for their motherhood.

    To complete the analogy, one could argue for a military draft or a volunteer military.

    I’m not understanding. It’s going over my head. How is that?

    • #49
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