Snappy Answers to Anti-choice Statements
“Just because abortion and birth control are legal doesn't mean they are right. After all, slavery used to be legal.” “Abortion is America's Holocaust!” A woman's choice to have an abortion is her own. You cannot compare one woman's personal, moral decision to institutional racism and genocide. “How would you feel if your mom aborted you?” I would not be an entity capable of feeling, so the question is moot. “Thank G-d your mom is pro-life!” You are assuming that every pregnancy is an accident and that giving birth is the same as being against abortion. Many pregnancies are planned, and many pro-choice women either have children or want to have them someday. “What if the baby will grow up to cure cancer or be president?” What if the woman could have cured cancer but her life was derailed by being forced to be a mother? As for the presidency, there's never going to be a 4-year vacancy in that position. “Google images of abortions and see how you feel then.” I'd feel the same way that I'd feel if I googled images of heart surgery. Surgeries are bloody and gross, but necessary. Besides, most of the images that come up are anti-choice propaganda. The pictures are mislabeled, Photoshopped, and staged. “Adoption is a better alternative to abortion.” Adoption is one of many options available throughout the course of a pregnancy, but it is not an alternative to abortion. Adoption is an alternative to raising a child yourself. It doesn't help the women for whom the pregnancy itself is a problem. “Abortion is never really necessary to save the life of the mother.” Two words--ectopic pregnancy. “What about Natural Family Planning? It's organic!” It's organic, but it's not as effective as hormonal birth control or condoms. NFP doesn't work for couples who are non-monogamous, who are not equally committed to following it, or who have an unequal balance of power. What happens to NFP when an abusive husband demands sex? “I agree abortion is necessary sometimes, but I don't agree with women who use it as birth control.” Technically, abortion is birth control since it stops a birth from happening. If you mean that you don't like women who get abortions frequently or casually, no woman WANTS to have frequent medical procedures. Studies show that most women who seek an abortion did not intend to become pregnant. “If you have sex, you should be ready to have a baby.” Ideally, young people should wait to have sex until they are mature enough to know how to handle contraception or unplanned pregnancy, and discuss this with their partners. But over the course of a lifetime, people have sex because it feels good and they want to bond with their partners. For many couples, this desire is completely separate from the desire to have a baby. “The Pill is unhealthy. It screws up the body's natural processes.” Women who have endometriosis, Premature Ovarian Failure, Poly-Cystic Ovary Syndrome, and many other conditions are treated with the Pill because their body's natural processes are already “screwed up.” “What about men? They should have a say!” Most women do discuss their decision with their partners, but that's not possible in cases of rape, incest, or abuse. In the end, it's the woman's choice because she is the one who carries the pregnancy to term. If you have a problem with this, take it up with Mother Nature. “You could be carrying the second coming of Jesus!” Or a serial killer—and statistically, the fetus is much more likely to be a serial killer than Jesus. “You support population control!” Forcing women who want to have children into not having them is just as bad as forcing women who don't want to have children to be pregnant. Pro-choice means just that—supporting the woman's choice. “Rape and incest victims shouldn't have abortions if they get pregnant. It's not the baby's fault how it was created. Two wrongs don't make a right.” That is entirely up to the victim to decide. She's already had her bodily autonomy violated once. The least we can do is empower her to decide what happens to her body afterwards. “Abortions are way too easy to get.” Depending on where she lives and her age, women have to go through mandatory waiting periods, parental notification or consent, mandatory counseling with false information, and lack of insurance coverage. If a woman lives in a county without an abortion provider (hint: it's most counties), seeing one often means traveling great distances, missing work, and arranging childcare. Does that sound easy to you? “Why should a pharmacist dispense Plan B or the Pill if it's against his religion?” If a patient has a signed prescription from her doctor for a legal medication, it's the pharmacist's job to fill it. He should only interfere if the prescription will have a bad interaction with a medication the patient is already taking. What if a doctor refused to give a blood transfusion because of her religion?
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