Biff the unclean

The reason I became an Escort was guilt.
I was ambivalent about abortion. I could see the point that both sides made and they truly seemed equally valid. I was just happy that I would never be called upon to make that decision.
My wife was giving a talk in Washington DC and I went along for the ride. We stayed at a hotel near the National Geographic headquarters (The Hilton I think, the hotel with the big Trader Vic's Tikis outside {you remember your land marks, I'll remember mine}) and were having breakfast at the hotel's restaurant that had windows on the sidewalk. I pointed out to my wife that there was a protest going on across the street in front of a brownstone. I joked about the protestors being very goofy looking, but I couldn't hear what they were chanting through the glass and couldn't read their signs. A Hispanic woman walked by or window who looked like she was about to have a nervous breakdown. She walked down the block and then came back and walked the other way. She did this several times with my wife and I munching on French toast and watching her. Finally she crossed the street and was immediately set upon by the protesters. There was screaming and yelling and they were grabbing her and pushing and pulling her. My wife said "That poor girl is in trouble, she needs help." After a few minutes the woman pulled herself free and lurched into the street. A passing car grazed her and knocked her down, though she was on her feet again in a moment and fleeing. It was only then that I realized what the protest was.
I cannot say that I believe in abortion. But I felt so guilty that I had sat on my ass stuffing my face watching this outrage happen without lifting a finger that when I returned to NYC I volunteered at Planned Parenthood.
IMO this RtL has nothing to do with respect for the sanctity of life at all. The topic of abortion could well have been chosen at random. From everything I've seen it has only to do with forcing strangers to obey you.

Loren Pechtel

Actually, the Bible does address it indirectly.

To kill a pregnant bystander by accident is a criminal matter. To harm her so as to cause a miscarriage is basically a civil matter.

If the fetus were a person the second offense would also be criminal.

Bad Kitty

Biff:

What a replusive, heartwrenching story and what a repulsive bunch of people they must have been.

I can only speak for myself: I am not a cruel or controlling person such as those you describe. I certainly would not engage in the sort of behavior you witnessed. In fact, I'd never participate in a protest outside of a clinic because no real good would come from it -- and because such protests inflict so much trauma on patients of the clinic.

I think society has to change it's heart and mind about the whole subject of abortion. I don't think that will happen by harrassing women as they enter a clinic.

Purple Smartie

I read several Christian pro-life sites such as this one which demonstrates how the Bible says that life does indeed begin at conception, or at least while we're still in the womb.

My personal beliefs regarding abortion: I'm pro-education. If women were educated about their bodies and empowered to take control of their sexual health, taught to use condoms or birth control pills, women would not get pregnant. If men were taught that it is equally their responsibility to ensure that their sex partner does not get pregnant, and taught that they do need to wear a condom every single time they have sexual contact with another person, women would not get pregnant. If people weren't so damn irresponsible, abortion would not be needed as a method of contraception in the majority of cases.

Of course there are many rape/incest situations which may lead to abortion, but I think if the woman did not have a choice to have sexual contact then she should at least have the choice to give birth or not, according to her own principles.

I am appalled at the number of citizens who gather outside abortion clinics and assault vulnerable young women who have done absolutely nothing wrong. The abortion clinic in my city also provides counselling, adoption services, confidential HIV and PAP testing and various other sexual health services, and I'll be damned if anyone tries to stop me from walking in there if I want to. I don't care what anyone's beliefs are, they have no right to physically or emotionally torture another human being.

RevDahlia

I was getting my birth control pills from PP for awhile, and twice had to wade through swarms of shrieking RtLers. Once I tried to explain that I was there to get birth control, so I wouldn't have to have an abortion, and they literally shouted over me. They wouldn't listen -- just shoved and yelled. Charming.

Hedwig

Christ...I am sooooo happy that the women's clinic I go to isn't under constant attack.

Those fucking people.

winstonjen

That's OK. I'm glad we could come to an understanding.

Not at all - what someone believes can affect why they choose the political affiliations they choose.

'Love' in the bible is demonstrated through genocide. It is not the book to use when you want to demonstrate love. Too bad fundies cannot see this.

I understand this. However, they do not have the right to blow up abortion clinics or set fire to them.

winstonjen

Well, to some of them, contraception = abortion.

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

Do these people think before they protest?

Loren Pechtel

No. Those anti-fucking people!

truelies

My experience has been that most who are Pro-Life in the sense of actually getting off their butts and trying to do something about the out of control level of incidence of Abortion in this Society (as opposed to simply sitting thorough a Sermon on Sanctity of Life Sunday and knowingly nodding to themselves that we within the walls of Church X are so morally superior to the followers of satan outside the fold) are motivated by a genuine and passionate love for the weak and unloved.

Are some Zealots who allow their zeal to draw them into paths that alienate rather than persuade? Yep, I should know I was one. I was one of the early supporters of Randall Terry's Operation Rescue which mistakenly attempted to duplicate the methods of the anti-Vietnam War left of the 1960's in the sense of filling the streets with mobs in protest and clogging the gears of the killing machine to where it could no longer function. Personally, there is probably still some camera footage floating around somewhere of my body rolling over the hood of an SUV driven by the most prominent late term abortionist in the USA, crashing to the ground just barely clear of his front axle and lying there stunned for a few seconds before crawling out of harms way. Those protests were a complete failure- not only failing to slow the killing machine, but alienating the basic constituency to which we needed to appeal because we had in fact chosen to follow a path of action which reflected the moral universe of our opponents - we became the thing we claimed to detest. Randall Terry has become much the same sort of 'fallen angel' in the sense that his personal life betrays his principles as a Jimmy Swaggart or a Jim Baker with all the 'humility and compassion' of a Fred Phelps thrown in for good measure. What can I say we allowed our zeal for the Cause to overwhelm the humble compassionate willinness to help those in need that should have been the hallmark of our Christianity.

The best and most effective Pro-Life work is done by those who recognise that by and large the woman is as much of a victim to be as is the child in her womb. Most of those who 'choose' to abort do so in the belief that they truly have no better alternative in an impossible/unbearable situation. Providng workable alternatives in a loving and compassionate manner does in fact change hearts and minds without denying moral free will.

As to issues regarding birth control or human sexuality in general- most of the Pro-lifers I know (and I expect that I know a broader range of such folks than 90% of those who post here) it is a myth that there is great opposition to birth control for consenting adults or for minors with parental permission. Opposition in the public realm is largely to the tax paid funding of what should be a private healthcare expenditure. True I know many couples who in their own lives who do not use barrier or chemical birth control for what they regard as good and sufficient medical and moral reasons which they will endorse within the walls of the Church but without (in the vast majority of cases) the expectation that the State should compel their pagan (secular) neighbors to follow suit. As to christians leading sexually repressed lives -BWAHAAAAAAAAAAAA you have not a clue dear secular reader if you believe that urban legend.