Well, this programme nailed it's colours to the mast pretty early on with it's opening statement. It was an extremely biased piece of programming from start to finish.
Who is the 'we' that needs to know? Women? Or just people who want to tell women what to do?
It was gross even having a woman narrating it, women don't normally get to narrate serious documentaries, of course. It's just a piece of emotive trickery.
Foetal pain, spine and skulls being crushed all sounds horrific. But what is the Ialternative? Really, what is it? Do we put unborn children before sentient women? Is a woman's biological ability to breed more important than their mental health? Is this the dark ages?
I felt sick with anger the shots of the digital images of the foetus in the womb because that is something amazing and beautiful being used as propaganda against women. The whole 'pain' aspect is completely irrelevant to me: the same people who oppose abortion don't care about killing a cow to make a burger, they feel pain too. But the right of the HUMAN is seen as priority. Why not in this case? The foetus is UNBORN. The woman is the human. Can't we show her compassion?
The fact is, women only have very late abortions for the most horrific of reasons. It's not done casually at this stage, and it's only 1% of the abortion statistics. These women shouldn't be demonised, or made to feel guilty. Those women must go through hell.
They don't need some squirrel-faced Christian do-gooder MAN judging them. It's 'barbaric' (to use his words) to force women to give birth to babies they don't want. Who's going to bring the baby up? The woman will be written off as a single mother and therefore scum. Or if she gives it to the state, then god help it. But they don't think up to this point do they? It's all just dogmatically focused on this foetus.
The documentary stopped even pretending to be scientific halfway though and just went for full on emotive claptrap. I'd like to punch those people outside the Marie Stopes clinic, telling me what the 'bottom line' is. No, here's the bottom line:
If I was pregnant, and there was no abortion (which is where all this is heading, make no mistake, this is using science by stealth to erode women's rights) I wouldn't go get a backstreet abortion, I'd jump off a cliff. There. I get the final say. It's my body. I'm not an incubator. End of story. Bottom line. My life. My body.
interviewing a 16 year old who decided to keep her baby: well good for her! When her baby is 16, she'll be 32. What education will she have? How many books has she read, places has she seen? What does a 16 year old have to teach a child? Which is the greater tragedy?
Worse than that was the footage they showed of abortions which made me feel physically sick. Proper horror movie stuff. Was that supposed to sway me? It just made me feel more certain that I'm right that the pro-life side has to be so vulgar.
One in three women will have an abortion at some point. There will always be stupid kids who take it lightly, but most women don't, and most do not need to be made to feel any guiltier than they already do.
I really hate it too when they speak to women who've had abortions and regretted it. Because there are many, many more who don't look back. And how dare you try and take away our rights, something that you made use of? It was your decision.
I think I only heard the word 'woman' mentioned about twice in this whole programme.
PS. I implore you all to read this article for what we REALLY need to know about abortion; it's so well written, and really admirable, I just found it to be a revelation: http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/2007/10/abortion_still
3 comments:
Having children has never been on my agenda nor is it likely to be, and I take great care to make sure it doesn't happen. Being pregnant is a scenario I don't even want to contemplate -- it would literally destroy me. At my ripe old age, I fear it as much as I did when I was a teenager.
I am firmly, resolutely pro-choice. I have at least two friends who have had an abortion -- 10-15 years later, both say it was the best decision they ever made.
You're right to question the tagline "what we need to know", as I can only imagine the sort of drivel that was peddled here.
Even so, what I don't fully understand is those women (more often girls) who go full term only to dump the baby in a bag in a toilet. If you've gone that far, you may as well at least give the kid a fighting chance by leaving it at a hospital or something (and maybe get yourslef checked out while you're at it).
I am of course pro-choice, and I have difficulty understanding how anyone could choose to be pro-life (which, incidentally, is a horrible and misleading misnomer, implying pro-choice people are somehow anti-life).
Asterisk, I think the only explanation for that is they are not in their right mind. but yes of course, they should leave the baby somewhere safe.
I also don't want children, but even if I did, I'm sure I would still feel this way. Fertility is a lottery and every experience is different. Having children (or choosing not to)is very personal, and people should not get involved in other people's decisions (but they certainly like to).
Having said all this, I have always been VERY careful with contraception and have never been unlucky. But that's what it is: luck. Destiny doesn't have to be decided that way.
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