I really, really don't like writing about abortion. I've heard a ton of debates about the issue, and they always play out the same way. For example, whenever one side brings up the idea of some kind of restrictions on abortion, the pro-choice side starts off agreeing that the restrictions are reasonable -- and then undercuts them bit by bit, piece by piece, until they're meaningless. Such as "life of the mother" becomes "health of the mother," and then "mental health of the mother," and then "the woman will feel bad if she can't have an abortion" and "we shouldn't punish her with a baby."
So, in the end, even questioning the motives of a woman seeking an abortion is verboten. It's her right to choose, dammit.
In the past couple of weeks, though, two stories have brought that concept to mind.
In the first case, an illegal alien in Boston had a baby at home. She didn't want the baby (she claims it was the product of rape), so she tossed it out a window. She's currently being held on $10,000 bail, and the baby is in the hospital.
One way of looking at it is she is an incredibly callous human being, willing to attempt to murder a newborn in such an indifferent manner.
Another is that she simply botched an abortion. On the plus side, she certainly spared herself and others a great deal of expense and effort. On the minus side, she was about half an hour late (legally speaking) and screwed up the execution. (So to speak.) Had she gone to a doctor before she delivered and had the baby destroyed while still within her, there would have been no problem legally. Hell, there would have been women's groups lining up to transport her to and from the clinic and pick up the tab. (Or, more likely, get us the taxpayers to pay the bill.)
So, what's the difference, really?
Secondly, the Boston Globe ran an editorial denouncing the infamous "Octomom" and the doctor who enabled her freak show of a pregnancy. They don't approve of the doctor going against the guidelines for embryo-implanting (he overstuffed that turkey), and support him losing his medical license over the affair.
But wasn't she just exercising her rights to reproductive choice here? Where is her right to privacy and reproductive autonomy? And why should the doctor be penalized for simply helping her to fully exercise her right to choose to have a litter of babies all at once?
If one follows the feminist "pro-choice" argument logically, then in both these cases you pretty much have to respect these women's choices in regards to their reproductive freedom. One of them desperately did not wish to be a mother; the other desperately wanted to be a mother over and over and over again. And both availed themselves of what they saw was the best way to exercise that right, to make that choice. To impose limits on those choices -- or even express some kind of disapproval of those choices -- is to infringe on their rights to choose.
Personally speaking, I think both women are nuts. I'd put the baby-tosser in jail, then lock Octomom up in a nuthouse and put her kids up for adoption. But then, I'm just a man. I have no business even offering opinions on the subject of a woman's right to choose.
The feminists keep telling me so.
Update: My colleague Dan tipped me off to this story about a couple that is feeling ambivalent about their pregnancy, so have decided to outsource their "choice" of keeping the child or aborting it. Remember, according to the pro-choice lobby, we have no right to judge how any woman chooses to exercise her right to choose.
Thanks, Dan.



Comments (23)
Much like free speech, the ... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Sheik Yur Bouty | November 18, 2010 12:43 PM | Score: 8 (12 votes cast)
Much like free speech, the left only wants 'choice' that they agree with.
Some 'choices' are more free than others...
1. Posted by Sheik Yur Bouty | November 18, 2010 12:43 PM |
Score: 8 (12 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 12:43
2. Posted by RKemp | November 18, 2010 12:44 PM | Score: 7 (9 votes cast)
George Orwell had them figured out decades ago.
2. Posted by RKemp | November 18, 2010 12:44 PM |
Score: 7 (9 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 12:44
3. Posted by J | November 18, 2010 1:12 PM | Score: 7 (13 votes cast)
I have two friends that, when they were young(we're in our sixties)had abortions. They tell me there was never any doubt in their minds that they were killing a person, its existence was inconvenient and they would do it again given the circumstances.....and they are terribly sad and troubled by the whole thing.
I think we are insulting the intelligence of women, especially in this day and age, to play the "it really isn't a person" card.
Women (and I'm one)are a deadly species.
3. Posted by J | November 18, 2010 1:12 PM |
Score: 7 (13 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 13:12
4. Posted by Hank | November 18, 2010 1:47 PM | Score: 4 (8 votes cast)
"Choice" is a canard used for this subject only. Pick any other subject the looney left feels strongly about and that word is sorely lacking.
As to the idiot octomom, if she had had 8 abortions, she'd be a hero to globe-democrat and their looney left readers.
4. Posted by Hank | November 18, 2010 1:47 PM |
Score: 4 (8 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 13:47
5. Posted by GarandFan | November 18, 2010 2:00 PM | Score: 4 (8 votes cast)
We have 'the ability' to do many things requiring choice. Unfortunately, in many cases, 'we also lack the intellect to make the correct choice'.
5. Posted by GarandFan | November 18, 2010 2:00 PM |
Score: 4 (8 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 14:00
6. Posted by TexBob | November 18, 2010 2:04 PM | Score: -3 (13 votes cast)
I think liberal women should be able to kill their babies all they want.
Keep on killing them libtards. You'll die out eventually.
6. Posted by TexBob | November 18, 2010 2:04 PM |
Score: -3 (13 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 14:04
7. Posted by BlueNight | November 18, 2010 2:07 PM | Score: 2 (6 votes cast)
The lack of moral consistency is tied to the moralizing of disgust.
Disgusting rape = disgusting devilspawn.
Disgusting deformity = disgusting too-early death.
Disgusting fetus = disgusting life burden.
Disgusting defenestration = disgusting criminal.
Disgusting overpregnancy = disgusting selfishness.
When morals are based on specific rules, the consequences may be children with Downs and missing limbs, children of rape, and octuplets. BUT THEY'RE STILL ALL CHILDREN AND LIFE IS PRECIOUS.
7. Posted by BlueNight | November 18, 2010 2:07 PM |
Score: 2 (6 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 14:07
8. Posted by Bob | November 18, 2010 2:11 PM | Score: 5 (9 votes cast)
Because of the polarization of this issue, there can be no reasonable compromise. The slightest restriction on "the right to choose" is shouted down by the feminist left (Feminazis), while the fundamentalist right insists that any interruption of a pregnancy is Murder.
If we could ever get rid of Roe v. Wade and leave this matter up to the states where it was decided before 1973, we would get a spectrum of laws, some better than others, but generally balanced somewhere between the extremes of ALWAYS and NEVER. Not perfect, but an improvement over the status quo.
8. Posted by Bob | November 18, 2010 2:11 PM |
Score: 5 (9 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 14:11
9. Posted by jennifer | November 18, 2010 2:29 PM | Score: 1 (5 votes cast)
I just read about the couple who are leaving their abortion choice up to us- really! Whenever I read about statistics about unsafe environments, I reflect sadly, that the womb is the most dangerous place in the world for an infant.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1330860/Should-abortion--decide-U-S-couple-set-website-unborn-child.html
9. Posted by jennifer | November 18, 2010 2:29 PM |
Score: 1 (5 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 14:29
10. Posted by yttik | November 18, 2010 2:43 PM | Score: -1 (9 votes cast)
Quite simply I don't want the government making choices for women. I don't want the government in my health care and I don't want them in my bedroom. Indeed, women can and will make bad choices, but that does not mean that expanding government so that it grows big enough to regulate and monitor women's choices will make anything better. It won't. If you really want to foul something up, put the government in charge.
10. Posted by yttik | November 18, 2010 2:43 PM |
Score: -1 (9 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 14:43
11. Posted by 914 | November 18, 2010 3:21 PM | Score: 2 (6 votes cast)
I guess its understandable she could'nt beat the "womb threshold rule" enacted by caring libs like Nancy, Gloria and Babs and hell, even Whoopi the water buffalo.
They all have one thing mentally in common. They are dumb from the word go!
11. Posted by 914 | November 18, 2010 3:21 PM |
Score: 2 (6 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 15:21
12. Posted by DaveD | November 18, 2010 3:46 PM | Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
"Hell, there would have been women's groups lining up to transport her to and from the clinic and pick up the tab."
And that's what I don't get about the story at your link. This young girl claims she was raped and under threat of harm to her and her family she was told to shut up about it. That threat doesn't seem to prevent her from getting an abortion yet she would have rather carried the pregnancy to term in the house where she lives with her mother at the risk of her mother becoming curious. Either her mother is remarkably clueless or the mother and the daughter spend so little time together that the daughter figured her mother would never see her enough to wonder about the change in her silhouette. She tossed the newborn out the window but this other stuff doesn't make sense. By the way, my curiosity is in no way an attempt to seek an excuse for this teen. There is no way to justify in my mind what she did.
12. Posted by DaveD | November 18, 2010 3:46 PM |
Score: 3 (5 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 15:46
13. Posted by Tina S | November 18, 2010 4:10 PM | Score: -1 (13 votes cast)
Jay, good article. The only way I can see that there would be grounds for revoking his licence is if any of the Octokids have any permanent health problems, that resulted from the doctor inserting too many embryos.
13. Posted by Tina S | November 18, 2010 4:10 PM |
Score: -1 (13 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 16:10
14. Posted by 914 | November 18, 2010 4:17 PM | Score: 1 (7 votes cast)
"Jay, good article. The only way I can see that there would be grounds for revoking his licence is if any of the Octokids have any permanent health problems, that resulted from the doctor inserting too many embryos."
Ha ha ha ha ha....What?
14. Posted by 914 | November 18, 2010 4:17 PM |
Score: 1 (7 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 16:17
15. Posted by rodney dill | November 18, 2010 4:32 PM | Score: 3 (9 votes cast)
Choice is a misnomer as it only exists until you exercise it, then you're either pro-life or pro-abortion.
15. Posted by rodney dill | November 18, 2010 4:32 PM |
Score: 3 (9 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 16:32
16. Posted by MF | November 18, 2010 5:10 PM | Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
Appears that both of Jay's examples are in need some psychiatric help neither seemed rational or normal.
ps I wish they would take the pro-life/-abortion out of the federal government - beliefs cannot be changed.
We need to simply the laws and get back to the basics.
I too would have this addressed at the state level.
16. Posted by MF | November 18, 2010 5:10 PM |
Score: 2 (4 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 17:10
17. Posted by Jeff Blogworthy | November 18, 2010 9:00 PM | Score: -3 (3 votes cast)
First thought:
There are tons of available moral outrage for someone who tosses puppies off a bridge. Little will be heard of this incident. All the outrage was exhausted on the puppycide.
Second thought:
I can't believe the woman would be so careless with her anchor. She must have more.
17. Posted by Jeff Blogworthy | November 18, 2010 9:00 PM |
Score: -3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 21:00
18. Posted by Tina S | November 18, 2010 9:36 PM | Score: 0 (10 votes cast)
Ha ha ha ha ha....What?
914, for any licensed profession; doctor, electrician ect, if someone gets hurt as a result of not following the guidlines issued by the licencing agency, there is grounds for revoking the licence.
18. Posted by Tina S | November 18, 2010 9:36 PM |
Score: 0 (10 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 21:36
19. Posted by 914 | November 18, 2010 9:50 PM | Score: -1 (5 votes cast)
Thanks for the update. You earned 2 negs..
19. Posted by 914 | November 18, 2010 9:50 PM |
Score: -1 (5 votes cast)
Posted on November 18, 2010 21:50
20. Posted by susan | November 19, 2010 8:13 AM | Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
"Quite simply I don't want the government making choices for women. I don't want the government in my health care and I don't want them in my bedroom."
Did the human being who was murdered for miraculously surviving an abortion performed on them by doctors and nurses in a hospital named after Christ given a CHOICE?
You know who gave my gender's va-jay-jay the right to murder, Ted Kennedy's Death Mass sermonizing their Universal Health Care in a majestic cathedral full of Sanctity of Lifers.
20. Posted by susan | November 19, 2010 8:13 AM |
Score: 1 (3 votes cast)
Posted on November 19, 2010 08:13
21. Posted by Don L | November 19, 2010 10:48 AM | Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
My bumper sticker: Abortion -it's for the children!
Nuff said...
21. Posted by Don L | November 19, 2010 10:48 AM |
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on November 19, 2010 10:48
22. Posted by Don L | November 19, 2010 10:55 AM | Score: 0 (2 votes cast)
Not to worry ladies, Obamacare will certainly insure your Supreme Court-given right to "privacy" after you fill out these two-hundred forms and submit to the procedure with your new government appointed doctor -an ex-TSA trained felon.
Polarization - wait until you see those lines on Judgment day when Nature's God tells us to line up - sheep here - goats over there.
22. Posted by Don L | November 19, 2010 10:55 AM |
Score: 0 (2 votes cast)
Posted on November 19, 2010 10:55
23. Posted by Tennwriter | November 20, 2010 12:44 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Well said. Democrats were for treating people as property in 1860, and they are now. However, I don't think its an improvment. At least a healthy, black slave had a chance of fighting back, and maybe killing the whipman. Baby doesn't have much chance of beating up the guy with the steel forceps.
23. Posted by Tennwriter | November 20, 2010 12:44 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on November 20, 2010 00:44