Live Bait

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/duty_calls.png

One of my facebook 'friends', a self-described radical right wing conservative and radical christian, posts daily anti-choice statements, anti-president statements, anti-healthcare statements, along with hymns, scriptures, and snippets from radio personalities Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. She recently attended a WV for Life event.

From the WV for Life website:

"WVFL ... works with legislators to... defeat pro-choice legislation."

When pro-choice activists work with legislators, they work to protect the free choice of women. They are not trying to take away any options. They do not try to pass laws that would ever require a pregnant woman to terminate a pregnancy.

On the other hand, WV for Life wants to force women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, and either raise those children in whatever health they are born with, in whatever environment they are born in, or abandon them into state care, where they will likely receive neither a loving home, nor the treatment/ services they need.

"WVFL's primary purpose is to educate through the presentation of detailed and factual information about fetal development, abortion"

This statement is found on their "About Us" page. Elsewhere, on their "Abortion Basics" page, we read:

"More than one in every four unborn babies in the U.S. dies from abortion."

This statement may lead the reader to believe that 25% of the pregnant women in the US choose to terminate their pregnancies. This is deliberately misleading. In medical contexts, the word "abortion" refers to any process by which a pregnancy ends with the death and removal or expulsion of the fetus, regardless of whether it is spontaneous or intentionally induced. According to wikipedia,

Between 10% and 50% of pregnancies end in clinically apparent miscarriage, depending upon the age and health of the pregnant woman.^[3] Most miscarriages occur very early in pregnancy, in most cases, they occur so early in the pregnancy that the woman is not even aware that she was pregnant. One study testing hormones for ovulation and pregnancy found that 61.9% of conceptuses were lost prior to 12 weeks, and 91.7% of these losses occurred subclinically, without the knowledge of the once pregnant woman.^[4] Prospective studies using very sensitive early pregnancy tests have found that 25% of pregnancies are miscarried by the sixth week LMP (since the woman's Last Menstrual Period).^[29]

So by using the clinical term abortion, WV for Life is using deception (that's a nice word for lies) on the very site where it claims to provide "detailed and factual information about... abortion".

I want to respond.

I want to explain that not every girl who is pregnant is white, middle-class, and has supportive parents. I want to point out that her "every child has a right to life" rhetoric may seem okay when one is thinking about a blonde, blue-eyed baby born into a ranch-style house in a good neighborhood. What about a baby born prematurely with severe disabilities that the parents cannot afford the care for? What about the baby that is neglected in a carrier, and no longer bothers to cry? What about a baby being born into a slum, roaches crawling in their ears at night? A baby born to a mother who drinks heavily and does drugs? A baby born to a mother who brings home stray men for a night? A baby born to a mother who can't remember to pay the electric bill, much less remember to feed an infant or seek medical care when it is sick?

Do these children have the 'right' to this kind of life? These are innocent children. Why put thousands of children through such horrible experiences? Is it better to be aborted at 7weeks gestation, or to be raped by your drunk mother's one-night-stand at the age of six?

Do not bring up adoption.

Judging by the thousands of children growing up in state care, vs the millions of dollars Americans pour into infertility treatments, it is obvious that adoption is seen as a 'last resort' to most couples. And even then, they want a cute little baby. It appears no one dreams of adopting a minority-race first-grader with special needs.

I want to attend a WV for Life event and poll the attendees and speakers. I want to find out how many have adopted these kids that so desperately need families. I want to find out what they are doing to improve the lives of those children who were not aborted and are already here.

In short, I want to take the bait, and call out the liars and the manipulators, and the folks who use their time, energy, and freedom trying to restrict mine.

But I'm not going to take the bait.

I'm going to look the other way, and smile and wave.