No one chastises single mothers for not being able to make ends meet

A commenter asserts that “not all abortion opponents” simply want to control women. I challenge them, then, to show us the anti-abortion crusaders who are also crusading for easy access to effective contraception, free/cheap high-quality healthcare for pregnant women and children, workplace accommodations so parents…

It’s not about believing personhood begins at conception, though, because I don’t think any of them would be fine with a procedure that removes the fetus from the woman’s body but doesn’t kill it and just sees how it gets along on its own. If it were just about personhood belonging at conception and therefore people…

Show us, then, the anti-abortion crusaders who are also crusading for easy access to effective contraception, free/cheap high-quality healthcare for pregnant women and children, workplace accommodations so parents can take care of their kids’ needs, and a living wage for everyone. Any of these things would do more to…

A state is a political construct.  It can’t have beliefs.  This is about conservative (often Evangelical) Christians wanting everyone, even those who believe differently, to follow their beliefs.

That’s a different contention than your first, but ok. I understand what these people believe: That life begins at conception and therefore any abortion is murder. To that, there are two things:

The answer is infinity, unfortunately. I was reading #youknowme tweets yesterday, and basically every story about an abortion caused by rape, non-viable fetus, or mother’s health threat had several responses calling the woman (or girl) a liar.

Yeah, no, I get it. I understand what they “believe” and I think they should be allowed to believe whatever they want. In this country, we do not make laws based on beliefs, and you’re conflating religious faith and belief, and also “Pretty much every law is an impositions on someone’s beliefs” is a silly thing to…

And the research doesn't support that. Most women are relieved not sad

I wish I could find it again, but I read an article recently calling this out. Portraying abortions as emotionally fraught, difficult decisions just contributes to the narrative they want to send about abortions being something they need to “protect” women from.

This exactly. All the personal stories in the world won’t change their minds. It’s not just about control, it’s also very much about punishment, and about secular law beholden to their religious nuttery.

They absolutely do not, you pinhead. They view it as murder, not child abuse. Troll smarter, not harder.

Yep. It doesn’t matter because they’re not listening. We’re not human beings, we’re background noise.

In my time in a cult church, I had a late period after fooling around with a guy and I thought to myself “I would absolutely get a secret abortion rather than go through the shame of a pregnancy out of wedlock (and that I couldn’t financially support).” And then I realized that I was pro-choice.

I hate this narrative, too. I can think of a handful of my friends who have had abortions and been happy to have them. Not “let’s throw a party” happy. But relieved and fully confident they were making the right choice for themselves. The stereotype of the weepy, conflicted woman on her way to/from the abortion clinic…

I’m currently annoyed with people who talk about abortion like there’s only one way to experience it and if you weren’t sad or crying then you’re a monster. It piles on even more stigma to an already highly stigmatized thing and implies that only people who are very sad and somber are deserving of the service. Over…

Wow, I had a very similar experience as you. I was raised very conservative and was taught abortion was murder, etc. I once had a pastor tell us some of us didn’t have best friends because they had been aborted. I believed it all. In college I had a pregnancy scare, and my immediate thought was, I need an abortion.…

Any appeal to empathy directed at the right is a waste of time. I don’t feel that sharing these stories is a waste of time, but expecting the right to grow a sense of empathy over it is.

What this outpouring of abortion stories has highlighted is the yawning gap between the power of narrative and how little actual power we wield, a gap that can only be narrowed through collective action.

Women are pretty much yelling these stories into the void. They know all types of women have abortions. They just don’t give a shit about you or your life. The point is political control through religion. The men (and women) who make these laws KNOW that they’ll never ban abortion everywhere, which means their…