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Why Are Abortion Proponents So Emotional?
Proponents of abortion get quite emotional, many to the point of irrationality. Their reactions to the potential that there might be even the slightest constraints on abortion are way over the top. We have seen quite a bit of hysterics on display the last couple of months.
Why? I can’t think of another issue that generates such a high level of emotion, even supposedly existential issues like “climate change.” The weird sex advocates get emotional and are very persistent, but even they don’t get hysterical in the same way that abortion advocates do.
What is it about abortion that causes such reactions?
For this discussion, I am referring to the extreme activists who put themselves on public display, not the vast muddy middle of people that @susanquinn addresses below.
[I operate on a theory that the more I understand the other party’s motivations, the more likely I can help either find a workable solution, or convince them that they might be mistaken.]
Published in Culture
They don’t know any facts about how and where and don’t care. It’s the only issue they have with real support if defined dishonestly. The other issues are easier to see and harder to lie about. It’s all about centralization of power. None of the issue are real to the folks who run matters for Democrats.
It’s true. Paradoxically the more contraceptives the more abortions. It only takes one screw up and you’re pregnant. This is why planned parenthood is such a pusher if contraceptives. You would think it would be working against their interests. But it doesn’t. It’s sympathetic to their interest in that it builds a culture of sexual promiscuity.
Those are a couple of factors I had not thought of, and might be some interesting study topics for some sociologists – does childhood home family status (father present and supportive or not) and/or personal sexual history correlate with strength of opinion on abortion?
Or, from a religious perspective, “even the devil quotes scripture.”
My goal was not to be contrarian for its own sake. It was to present the viewpoint that the more angry abortion proponents hold.
I’m glad to hear that Paglia gives some of them pause, but it also appears, from your comment, that it’s not ultimately convincing to them. At least not right away.
And this is the other Big Lie of abortion. That it’s “consequence-free.” I’ve had several miscarriages. Besides the emotional trauma (and women who think electing to terminate their pregnancy are fooling themselves and will carry their abortion with them the rest of their lives), it is also physically painful. The same D&E procedure is used to treat miscarriages as abortions and, while it’s not quite as intense as labor, it hurts and you end up with a dead baby after it’s over, rather than someone to love.
Also, the vast majority of cases of “septic uterus” occur after an abortion (not to mention perforated uteri, etc.)
https://pjmedia.com/columns/paula-bolyard/2022/06/27/fact-check-the-truth-about-miscarriages-ectopic-pregnancies-and-the-end-of-roe-v-wade-n1608551
If lefties lips are moving, they’re lying — either to you or to themselves.
Manny, who was Reagan? Just kidding, Manny. I knew it was Reagan. I would be willing to bet most of those young women protesting do not know it was Reagan and probably do not know who Reagan was.
It’s called fundamentalism. It’s irrationalism, dualism, idealist utopianism. It’s their entire structure of this idealistic societal reform, that is utterly removed from reality. There is no logic, or reasoned thinking. This is a mentality that is born of fear, and group thinking run amok. You cannot reason with the unreasonable. It is a childlike mentality that is festering, and feeding on itself. I’m a house painter so I know exactly what I’m talking about.
It is “guilt”. Either they have had an abortion themselves or someone very close to them has. And very naturally, in spite of the horrific protestations that they are “proud” of their abortion, they have some very deep unhealed wounds surrounding this fact. They prefer to deny and ignore their decision and its continued weight on their soul, such that when it is brought up as a topic that they cannot ignore, they respond with great emotion and anger.
I heard that Minnesota & Colorado was deploying mobile abortion centers (think RV for infantcide) to its borders for the convenience of pregnant women out of state. Things are getting weird.
I have wondered about this, as well. There are many good answers here, but I think it’s a combination of a lot of them. I’m quite sure people on the left love to be outraged. I guess it makes them feel alive.
And then there’s the sheer ignorance of so many of the hysterics. We seem to be revisiting many antique ideas, such as that women who have miscarriages may be prosecuted for having abortions. Why would they think that? Do any of the anti-abortion laws now on the books contemplate prosecuting women that are proved to have had abortions? I’m not aware of it. Also, “banning abortion will kill women.” Really? How?
I guess if you truly believed these myths, fear and anger might be warranted. Too bad they won’t listen to reason.
“Ken Olin tweeted that men should be “financially on the hook from the moment of conception.”
That’s how it’s worked since the dawn of recorded history. Ol’ Ken really thinks he’s stumbled onto something there, doesn’t he?
And how about this, Ken: The father and mother could enter into some sort of legal union where they promise to raise the child together. Maybe they could make it official with some sort of ceremony. Just throwing out some random ideas here.”
(Copied from Jim Treacher’s Substack, which is always worth reading and often priceless, like today. https://jimtreacher.substack.com/p/elizabeth-warren-wants-to-put-up)
Very true. I went out with a man years ago who had fathered a child that had been aborted. He told me about it while we were breaking up, even though it had nothing to do with it it also had everything to do with it. Years later he started harassing me during the referendum and I had to block his calls. I didn’t understand back then how much guilt can derail a person’s life.
Would you expect it to cause them to immediately change their position?
If there were any justice in this life, the protesters would be tracked down by any means necessary, including immoral means, and then they would be locked up in filthy prisons for eighteen months awaiting a show trial.
Edited: Just to be clear: the above comment was sarcasm aimed at the ongoing unjust treatment of the January 6 protesters. I don’t think anyone deserves to be treated that way. :-)
Certainly not, though I suppose it is possible. What I expect, which I think that I made clear in my earlier comments, is that pro-abortion folks would simply dismiss Paglia, treating her the way a MAGA guy like me would treat a David French or a Rick Wilson.
If they’re so wrapped up in their abortion privilege that they would dismiss anyone who argues with it, then it doesn’t matter who you quote to them.
But some may be reachable, and that perspective seems like one good option for doing so.
Especially if it also gets them to question other things they’ve been told, not just abortion.
I think the Second Wave Feminism answer has a lot of weight to it. It’s a view of motherhood as living hell, of abject slavery in service of men and a tiny tyrant. Imagine you are required by law to take care of Joe Biden – change his diapers, make sure he is minimally embarrassing in public, dress him, watch him like a hawk because his actions are your responsibility. For this, you receive no pay, and you are expected to pay for all of the supplies.
Motherhood is the one of the most intense responsibilities out there, and is about as far from freedom as possible. I wonder about their childhoods – did their mothers seem that miserable? It’s hard to imagine parenthood without love for the child.
Sexual freedom is a huge part of this. The Left believes nothing should ever stop people from screwing. Add in how disruptive having kids is to your life plans, and you have a pretty solid reason to want abortion.
@henrycastaigne I think gets at why any restriction is treated as an attack. Abortion lets you exercise complete control over your body.
Sounds like good reasons not to be a single mother.
“Family Planning and Abortion” is a 3.7 BILLION dollar industry.
But, see. That’s a Big Lie. The complete control she might have (might) is over her actions. Obviously she didn’t have complete control over her body when she became pregnant with an unwanted baby.
Can ;-)
Must be a secrament. See “Shout your abortion” along with “Why I Celebrate My Abortion on Mother’s Day”
Because pregnancy is a fatal disease and abortion is health care to cure it. Didn’t you know that?
Anyone know the percentage of deaths during childbirth. Must be a lot lower than it was 50 years ago.
Substack needs some sort of multiple subscription discount. $50 each is killing me.
OK, I’m a sexist and a male chauvinist but motherhood is what women literally exist for. To perpetuate the species as it were. God or Nature it the main purpose. (Donning asbestos armour)
This is so but men were naturally made to rape and conquer foreigners. Nature sucks. We should try to move beyond our filthy ape nature.
If men stop raping and conquering, civilization can still continue. Not so if women don’t have children.
Fair point. But I think civilization will be fine if leftist ladies with blue hair don’t have children. Actually, I think it would be much improved.
They already do that, but it doesn’t help as much as it should because they get to indoctrinate other peoples’ children.