“Even though many girls who have abortions may be sluts, this blog is not about calling them sluts.” So writes Rebecca, the curator of Checkmate, Pro-Choicers!–a new Tumblr filled with anti-choice “arguments” that I initially assumed was a parody and then hoped was a parody and then realized was sadly maybe not a parody.
I don’t want to beat up on Rebecca specifically. She seems young and well-intentioned and zealously anti-choice in the way that only someone who doesn’t yet know anything about how the world really works has any excuse to be. And who knows? Someday she might decide she’d like to choose to have sex without the risk of making a baby every single time…
Or she might know someone who almost dies from pre-eclampsia and realize that being pregnant means a little more than a period-free nine months followed by an epidural.
Or her grandmother might tell her about the time she got pregnant and risked her life to have an illegal abortion–because “when a woman does not want to be pregnant, the drive to become unpregnant can turn into a force equal to the nature that wants her to stay pregnant.”
Or she’ll learn how much raising a baby actually costs and/or how little welfare actually helps.
Or she’ll take a science class.
I’m a firm believer that there is “nothing like life to teach you a little more.” So I’m not giving up hope that Rebecca and her self-righteous, victim-blaming pals might someday grow up, learn some compassion, and come around to our side.
In the meantime, I’m heartened by the fact that this apparently qualifies as a pro-life trump card:
Also: Steve Jobs. And, of course, God. Bringing out the big guns!
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Poe’s Law strikes again…
Even though many people who are pro-life may be vicious, sociopathic misogynists who’d rather see women dead, scarred, traumatized or suffering along with their children under crushing poverty than acknowledge that abortion is a genuinely needed aspect of comprehensive women’s health care, this comment isn’t about calling them that.
This really is appalling, both the proud flaunting of stupidity and the dripping, unconscionable malice of it. But the one thing that stand out to me foremost is that the pro-lifers claim to be pro-woman, asserting abortion is anti-woman, and regularly accuse (or imply) women who are seeking abortion of doing so flippantly and callously. This is viciously anti-woman (not to mention anti-intelligence, anti-facts and anti-reality) and is nothing but flippant and callous. Projection, much?
She also doesn’t seem to know the difference between “check,” (I am able to win) and “checkmate,” (the game is over).
Curious that she calls us pro-choicers instead of baby-killers.
Please stop saying “pro-life” when you mean “anti-choice.”
I am sorry to have to point that out, again.
I heard somewhere that an anti-choice group adopted Dr. Seuss’ famous “A person’s a person” line as a slogan, in some campaign or other, and they were promptly sued by his estate, because his family knew that he was pro-choice and would resent the misrepresentation of his words.
Dunno if that’s true or not, but if it is…checkmate, pro-lifers!
Basically I just facepalmed the whole time I read through this blog. But there’s a counterpoint blog now:
checkmateprolifers.tumblr.com
Whoever runs it does an excellent job of being reasoned, mature, and respectful.
i found this “checkmate” to be incredibly short sighted.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m53wi6tnz21rxewzbo1_1280.jpg
really? really? keep drinking that kool-aid.
White lettering on a light-blue background with a comic sans lookalike font? She needs a graphic design class too.
I discovered them yesterday and couldn’t resist trolling them with comments like, ‘If you don’t want a baby, don’t have sex. The worst the father can do is murder you!’ and ‘Don’t kill your baby! Birth it, then throw it at the wall to make splatter-art!” and “If you abort, where will your creepy neighbor turn for sex six years from now? Think of the pedophiles; choose life!’
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I think this girl is trolling. The “checkmate, [group of people]” phrase is a common trolling tactic. Also, these particular responses show typical troll structure: http://checkmateprochoicers.tumblr.com/post/24634613576/are-you-actually-stephen-colbert-in-disguise-or-someone, http://checkmateprochoicers.tumblr.com/post/24964475109/i-support-abortion, http://checkmateprochoicers.tumblr.com/post/24917243422/hey-i-just-met-you-and-your-blog-is-crazy-but-here.
This, in addition to the fact that she uses British grammar (“my family ARE” as opposed to “my family IS”) and remains surprisingly vague about her denominational affiliation in this post>/a> leads me to believe that this site is not real.