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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

3 Ways to be Pro-Life & Anti-Misogynistic, Concurrently

But first, a satire titled:
Three premises to exempt men from the abortion debate.

1.        1.)  BECAUSE INTELLECTUAL ABILITIES ARE DETERMINED BY GENDER, demand that only the gender affected by certain topics may use their GENDER-SPECIFIC INTELLECT to come to a reasoned and logical conclusion.    

2.        2.) Argue against the science behind human development.  Throw out all the embryology textbooks, as well as the entire Human Genome Project.  Also, bury any and all evidence from Planned Parenthood’s campaign to legalize Birth Control – like THIS PLANNED PARENTHOOD BROCHURE FROM 1964.    

3.       3.)  Recognize that human life is the resultant of ANY volitional, loving RELATIONSHIP, so that any two partners may express their love for one another in a way that produces offspring.  As Sir Elton John crooned, “all you need is love.” 

Now for reason to step in, because satire feels condescending; and truth is far more desirable than falsehoods. 

In the spirit of full-disclosure, I am a feminist.  Granted, this is not a popular label amongst the evangelicals with whom I most frequently converse (did you catch that?  Yes, I’m also a Christian – another disclosure).  Yet I was raised and remain to this day a dyed-in-the-wool feminist.  In fact, it is my faith in Jesus that concretely grounds my whole-hearted belief that women have been endowed with the same existential qualities and should therefore be afforded the same ontological rights as their male counter parts. 

I am also post-abortive.  That means that I’ve had an abortion.  Yet, I’m Pro-Life.  Hypocritical?  No.  In truth, it is because I’ve had an abortion that I am Pro-Life.    

None of the above labels, nor any of my life experiences, exclude me from logically considering the issue of abortion.  To wit, I offer the following counter-points to the satirical premises above that seek to preclude men from engaging in the abortion debate.   

1.)  If we feminist are going to demand that gender has NO determinate effect on intellect or reasoning ability, in order to maintain our intellectual credibility, we have to hold this stance in the abortion debate as well.  We must honor and heed our convictions: gender has no bearing on one’s ability to reason.  Therefore, men may utilize their intellectual faculties and reasoning abilities when examining the issue of abortion. 

2.) We have to examine the science behind human development.  Seriously.  Pick up an embryology textbook.  Admit that the nation’s largest abortion broker, Planned Parenthood, defined abortion as a procedure that “kills the life of a baby after it has begun,” to encourage the palatability of birth control in the 1960’s.  Realize that even cognizant Pro-Abortion philosophers recognize that individual human life begins at insemination. 

“A human fetus after all is simply a human being at a very early stage of his or her development.”
-- David Boonin, A Defense of Abortion[1] 

Therefore, arguing on behalf of the life of another member of the species, Homo sapiens, is not a gender-specific endeavor.  Thus, males are able to argue against anything that ends the life of another human, be that lethal injection, guns, or abortions.  Because at any stage of our development, we are all still human.    

3.) We have to recognize that in order to produce human offspring, sperm from a male is one of two requisite ingredients for a human child.  Thus, every embryo has two parties responsible for its existence.  One Female.  One Male.  Ergo, males DO have an inherent responsibility in reference to the resulting human life.  This irrefutable truth means that ABORTION IS A MAN’S ISSUE, TOO

These premises indicate that every human may engage in the debate regarding abortion.  It is illogical and irresponsible, and frankly makes us look like hysterical alarmists, for women to scream “Get Out of My Uterus” to men who are respectfully and thoughtfully arguing either for or against abortion. 

And looking like hysterical alarmists is detrimental to the feminist movement they are claiming to promote.     






[1] David Boonin, A Defense of Abortion .  Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003, p. 20  

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