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January 09, 2008
Why a national conversation about abortion would suck, part 118
From a breathless Los Angeles Times article on the growing numbers of "post-abortive men" gathering themselves into support groups and in some cases aligning themselves with pro-life uglies:
Even abortion rights supporters acknowledge that men may benefit from counseling when they and their partners face an unwanted pregnancy.
So, hang on. Back it up, doc. I've impregnated this woman. There's a thing growing in her belly that with a modicum of care will turn into my son or daughter, whom neither I nor the woman in question would even dream of… you know, killing. And you're telling me if she goes in that room there and has that thing that would become my son or daughter vacuumed out of her and quickly disposed of, I might suffer some sort of psychological consequences? Nagging doubt, perhaps? Grief, even? You think I might want to talk to someone about it? Nah, get bent. You must be some kind of anti-women's rights nut or something.
In non-sarcastic English: When it's considered remarkable that either side of a given debate concedes something that's self-evident to anyone who's not terribly over-invested in that debate, then it's almost certainly not a debate worth having. You’re not likely to get anywhere more logical, and you’re likely to have given a lot of dishonest and/or crazed people an inordinate amount of publicity in the meantime.
Posted by Chris Selley at January 9, 2008 10:33 PM