# No, you asshole anti-abortion protestor. I do not want her to have an abortion@ **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 28, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624 "2010-04-28T14:31:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/41 "2010-04-28T20:01:17Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Because if you called the cops and said “She assaulted me!” and then told the cop (truthfully) what happened, they’d go “Seriously? You called me for _that_? Excuse me, I have real work to do.” I’d like to think that if the complainant was going into a clinic, the cop would take it seriously, given known cases of more extreme violence in that context. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/42 "2010-04-28T20:07:03Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > I never really got the outrage over abortion protesters. Okay, so the touching is crossing a line, but jeez, have you people never been lied to before? Never been insulted? Are your egos so fragile that someone yelling “She wants you have an abortion!” ruins your whole frickin’ day? > > For your lame pitting of a Doper favorite target, I award you 22 Doper points. Congratulations, that’s enough for a Creative Loafing travel mug! > > Assault? Really? Christ…:rolleyes: [A little light reading for you.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Access_to_Clinic_Entrances_Act) So, yeah, physically touching people to stop them from entering a clinic is not only assault, it’s a violation of federal law. And, for the record, protesters at Planned Parenthood clinics are some of the most judgmental people I’ve ever encountered. When I was pregnant with the sprog, I had to _walk past_ the PP clinic in Houston. It only took one encounter before I started going a block out of the way to avoid contact with them. Their right to have an opinion ends with my right to make my own decisions about reproduction. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/43 "2010-04-28T20:17:49Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > See, that’s just it though. They’re not dangerous. They’re easily cast aside. Easily ignored. Easily refuted. No threat whatsoever. No threat to you. They’re definitely a threat to scared, confused, and uneducated teen girls or women who don’t know what to do. They’re a threat to the mental health of women who are sorrowfully undergoing an abortion due to non-viable pregnancies like cases of [anencephaly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anencephaly) (wiki link but warning, disturbing pictures further down the page) or whose fetus has died inside of them, while protesters scream and cry at them to not “kill” their baby. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/44 "2010-04-28T20:20:00Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > one of their recent issues had a big article on how you’ll get breast cancer if you have an abortion IIRC, a full-term pregnancy will lower your risk of breast cancer (something to do with the way the cells in the breast change as a woman’s preparing to lactate). However, an aborted pregnancy does not confer the same benefits. So, if you really, really twist that around, you could end up with “abortions give you cancer,” because a woman who’s aborted a pregnancy would have a slightly higher chance of getting breast cancer than if she’d carried the pregnancy to term. > [@spark240](#): > > Sorry, what’s wrong with the “pro-choice” label? IME, a lot of “pro-choice” people are about as pro-choice as “pro-life” people are pro-life. I.e., they don’t care about working to ensure that a woman genuinely has a choice to make (access to health care, maternity leave, ability to not have her career and/or education unduly fucked with, viability of our adoption system), just keeping abortion legal. Similarly, the other side often doesn’t support similar initiatives, nor do they care about things like the death penalty–they just want to make abortion illegal. > [@MsRobyn](#): > > [A little light reading for you.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Access_to_Clinic_Entrances_Act) So, yeah, physically touching people to stop them from entering a clinic is not only assault, it’s a violation of federal law. Yeah, I was wondering if there was any kind of complaint that could be filed to remove those assholes’ ability to picket that area. Because god damn, it’s not like they don’t fucking spell that shit out for you. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/45 "2010-04-28T20:22:39Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > [A little light reading for you.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Access_to_Clinic_Entrances_Act) So, yeah, physically touching people to stop them from entering a clinic is not only assault, it’s a violation of federal law. > > And, for the record, protesters at Planned Parenthood clinics are some of the most judgmental people I’ve ever encountered. When I was pregnant with the sprog, I had to _walk past_ the PP clinic in Houston. It only took one encounter before I started going a block out of the way to avoid contact with them. Their right to have an opinion ends with my right to make my own decisions about reproduction. Pity you wound up changing your route. An 8-month-pregnant woman walking by, or better into, a Planned Parenthood clinic might cause one or more protesters to have a stroke. . ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/46 "2010-04-28T20:27:32Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > IME, a lot of “pro-choice” people are about as pro-choice as “pro-life” people are pro-life. I.e., they don’t care about working to ensure that a woman genuinely has a choice to make (access to health care, maternity leave, ability to not have her career and/or education unduly fucked with, viability of our adoption system), just keeping abortion legal I fail to see the contradiction. The person best able (or at least most likely to be best able) to evaluate personal access to health care, maternity leave, career/education impact and adoption options is the pregnant woman herself. She could be dirt-poor and decide she can keep her baby, or stinking rich and decide she can’t. Abortion being legal ensures the choice, by whatever criteria she chooses, will be hers. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/47 "2010-04-28T20:30:57Z")
The way I see it, you can hate abortion with every fiber of your being and wish that women who have them go to a hell that would make Fred Phelps say “Whoa dude, lighten up”, but as long as you’re not trying to actually prevent women from having them, you’re pro-choice. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/48 "2010-04-28T20:37:31Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I fail to see the contradiction. The person best able (or at least most likely to be best able) to evaluate personal access to health care, maternity leave, career/education impact and adoption options is the pregnant woman herself. She could be dirt-poor and decide she can keep her baby, or stinking rich and decide she can’t. Abortion being legal ensures the choice, by whatever criteria she chooses, will be hers. Working to keep abortion legal makes you pro-abortion. Working to make sure that a woman who wants to have an abortion can get one, a woman who wants to carry the pregnancy to term but give the baby up for adoption can do so, a woman who doesn’t want to get pregnant has access to birth control and understands how to use it, and a woman who wants to carry the pregnancy to term and keep the baby can also do so makes you pro-choice. Working to make abortion illegal makes you anti-abortion. Working to make sure that woman actually have a valid option to carry the pregnancy to term and give the baby up for adoption and keep it, as well as defending the lives of others by working for access to health care and against corporal punishment, makes you pro-life. See the distinction? IMO, a choice is only a choice when all the options are truly extant, and someone can’t claim to be working for a cause (e.g., life) when they only recognize one tiny application of it. > [@DianaG](#): > > The way I see it, you can hate abortion with every fiber of your being and wish that women who have them go to a hell that would make Fred Phelps say “Whoa dude, lighten up”, but as long as you’re not trying to actually prevent women from having them, you’re pro-choice. Agreed. Or, at least pro-abortion. So to speak. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/49 "2010-04-28T20:40:02Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > Pity you wound up changing your route. An 8-month-pregnant woman walking by, or better into, a Planned Parenthood clinic might cause one or more protesters to have a stroke. > > . I know. I just didn’t feel like dealing with those assholes at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/50 "2010-04-28T20:44:14Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I’d like to think that if the complainant was going into a clinic, the cop would take it seriously, given known cases of more extreme violence in that context. Such as the murders that pro-life people have committed (and isn’t that a lovely irony. I’d prefer it if they’d call themselves what they really are - they’re not pro-life, they’re anti-abortion.) Yeah, I’d hope that any cop a woman reported this assault to would understand the context. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/51 "2010-04-28T20:44:26Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Working to keep abortion legal makes you pro-abortion. Exactly! Just like anyone who thinks that racist speech should be protected by the First Amendment is pro-racism. Sometimes I wonder which I love more, abortions or racism? It’s so hard to choose! ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/52 "2010-04-28T20:47:05Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Working to keep abortion legal makes you pro-abortion. Working to make sure that a woman who wants to have an abortion can get one, a woman who wants to carry the pregnancy to term but give the baby up for adoption can do so, a woman who doesn’t want to get pregnant has access to birth control and understands how to use it, and a woman who wants to carry the pregnancy to term and keep the baby can also do so makes you pro-choice. But there are few challenges to the legality of giving up a child for adoption or having a baby and keeping it. Working to keep abortion legal means you’re protecting one part of that choice. It doesn’t mean that you’re neglecting the other aspects you mentioned. I think you’ll find must advocates for abortion rights also advocate sexual education and widely available birth control, as well as other reproductive health issues. Certainly Planned Parenthood does this. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/53 "2010-04-28T20:48:01Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > Exactly! Just like anyone who thinks that racist speech should be protected by the First Amendment is pro-racism. > > Sometimes I wonder which I love more, abortions or racism? It’s so hard to choose! For fuck’s sake, read what I wrote instead of getting your panties in a wad. Would you prefer it if we phrased it as pro-abortion-legality and anti-abortion-legality? Because I’d be fine with that; it’s just clunky. My point is simply that “pro-choice” isn’t an accurate description of all people who are in favor of keeping abortion legal, just as “pro-life” isn’t an accurate description of all people who want it to be illegal again. > [@Enginerd](#): > > But there are few challenges to the legality of giving up a child for adoption or having a baby and keeping it. Working to keep abortion legal means you’re protecting one part of that choice. It doesn’t mean that you’re neglecting the other aspects you mentioned. I think you’ll find must advocates for abortion rights also advocate sexual education and widely available birth control, as well as other reproductive health issues. Certainly Planned Parenthood does this. And another one who’s getting all up in a huff and responding without thinking it through. I’m not saying that pro-choice is never a valid desciption, just that it isn’t always. Planned Parenthood is a great example of an organization that I’d say is pro-choice, because they genuinely work to make sure that a woman has the resources she needs to actually be making a decision, versus being forced one way or the other due to circumstances beyond her control. So, you can have someone who works to keep abortion legal who is truly pro-choice, but you can also have someone who’s just pro-abortion-legality. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/54 "2010-04-28T20:48:07Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > Exactly! Just like anyone who thinks that racist speech should be protected by the First Amendment is pro-racism. > > Sometimes I wonder which I love more, abortions or racism? It’s so hard to choose! You don’t have to choose - embrace eugenics!! ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/55 "2010-04-28T20:49:24Z")
Mmmm, eugenics. So warm and cozy on a snowy April night. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/56 "2010-04-28T20:51:49Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > Exactly! Just like anyone who thinks that racist speech should be protected by the First Amendment is pro-racism. > > Sometimes I wonder which I love more, abortions or racism? It’s so hard to choose! Why choose? support abortion rights as part of maternal health aid for third-worlders, and you can have both at once! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/57 "2010-04-28T20:54:29Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Working to make sure that woman actually have a valid option to carry the pregnancy to term and give the baby up for adoption and keep it, as well as defending the lives of others by working for access to health care and against corporal punishment, makes you pro-life. I’d amend that paragraph a bit. The first part would be more defensible if it read “Working to make sure that women have the option of carrying the pregnancy to term, or to terminate it if necessary to avoid physical harm and suffering, with information on all options including adoption readily available” “Working for access to health care” is fine, but making it necessary to be against _corporal_ punishment? I mean, really. I’m not for spanking kiddies, but I just don’t see that as a pro-life issue. 😃 I think you may have meant _capital_ punishment (not that that issue fits neatly into a pro- or anti-life package either). ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/58 "2010-04-28T20:55:22Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > So, you can have someone who works to keep abortion legal who is truly pro-choice, but you can also have someone who’s just pro-abortion-legality. That’s quite a distinction from the “pro-abortion” term you used earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/59 "2010-04-28T20:57:44Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > If I’m a rape victim going in for an abortion, and I have people screaming at me, grabbing at me? Hell ya!!! > > You’re never going to have to experience an unwanted pregnancy, so what the FUCK do you know about it? So shut the fuck already. Ah yes, the old “what about rape victims” trope. I was wondering how long it’d be until that line came out. You and your ilk just love to pretend that every pregnant woman is a rape victim that got pregnant due to no fault of her own and that the sex and pregnancy is just absolutely traumatizing. Except that actual, pregnant-from-rape women in the US number in the hundreds. The OP wasn’t a pregnant rape victim and probably neither was the “young woman”. So you might as well say “Well what if the protesters were DRAGONS! Huh?! They’d be dangerous then!” > [@Guinastasia](#): > > But then, remember people, this is a guy who thinks it’s okay to mock a mentally unstable kid and can’t understand WHY everyone was so disgusted. :rolleyes: > > (IIRC, he claims to be proud to have no sense of compassion or empathy) What are you on about? Are you talking about [Mookie](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=543516&highlight=compassion)? I feel a hijack coming, so I’m just going to let that one go. Feel free to Pit me for it. > [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > No threat to you. They’re definitely a threat to scared, confused, and uneducated teen girls or women who don’t know what to do. They’re a threat to the mental health of women who are sorrowfully undergoing an abortion due to non-viable pregnancies like cases of [anencephaly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anencephaly) (wiki link but warning, disturbing pictures further down the page) or whose fetus has died inside of them, while protesters scream and cry at them to not “kill” their baby. Again with the “Let’s imagine a scenario where I’m right and then pretend that’s what happened” tactic. You’re defining “threat” as “convince not to have an abortion” and then you’re diagnosing this stranger’s fetus as having anencephaly so that they look evil. But more likely than not, these were people trying to convince a healthy “young woman” to not have an abortion of a healthy baby. It’s like you expect these people to just give up the fight and go home because, hey, she _might_ have been raped or the baby _might_ already be dead. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624/60 "2010-04-28T20:57:51Z")
Is there anyone who is “pro-abortion” as you describe, **Shot From Guns**? I suppose there might be organizations who don’t explicitly do all the other things you mention that a pro choice organization should do but that may be because they don’t have the time/funds. Also, individuals may devote their careers/lives towards fighting for legal abortion/reproductive rights and just not have the time/ability to do the other stuff while still supporting it. Plus, saying that those people are pro abortion does make them sound as though they support women getting abortions rather than carrying out a pregnancy. They’re still pro-choice if they think that a woman should have the ability to make whatever choice she feels is best for her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-asshole-anti-abortion-protestor-i-do-not-want-her-to-have-an-abortion/537624.md?page=4)