Editor:
In Rose Jones’ column, “Eugenics and anti-abortion both white-male sentiments” (Opinion, April 2), she draws an exaggerated connection between sterilization and opposing abortion rights and even engages in some of the stereotyping that she rails against. Obviously sterilization is repugnant and was blatant discrimination against the poor, the LGBT community and minorities. However, if you oppose abortion (according to Jones’ thinking), you must also belong to the same movements that are also anti-woman and anti-LGBT. Nothing could be further from the truth.
This can be clearly shown in the wide support for much-needed LGBT protections in housing and employment. Further, there has been a sea of change in marriage equality views. In contrast, the number of people opposing abortion has risen and intensified since Roe v. Wade. According to a CNN poll, 62 percent want all or most abortions made illegal. That is a 10 percent increase since 1995 and is a position that I share: that abortions should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest and health dangers. I think that as medical technology has improved and heart beats and fingers are more visible, Americans are rightfully caring more about the precious and powerless among us.
Ryan Burningham,
Junior, international studies
LC • Apr 12, 2013 at 6:02 pm
So what’s your point exactly, Ryan? Between the empty words and deception, I just can’t tell. So I’ll just discuss your letter line by line.
“However, if you oppose abortion (according to Jones’ thinking), you must also belong to the same movements that are also anti-woman and anti-LGBT. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Actually, a LOT of things can be “further from the truth” (your claim about how “62 percent want all or most abortions made illegal,” for instance, which I’ll get to later)–but this ain’t one of them. It just so happens that a lot of the anti-choice crowd are, in fact, anti-woman and anti-LGBT. Anyone who is anti-choice and disagrees with that is in denial, hopelessly ignorant, keen on warping facts/reality for their own gain, or wants to make themselves feel ultra-righteous.
“This can be clearly shown in the wide support for much-needed LGBT protections in housing and employment. Further, there has been a sea of change in marriage equality views.”
I find it interesting that you say this (as if it has anything to do with views on abortion rights), and yet you don’t even claim those things for yourself. You say “much-needed” as though YOU care, as though YOU think they’re much-needed–but do you really, do you really care? The only thing you’re doing in these two sentences is spouting words, words that mean absolutely NOTHING in this context. Why should anyone even believe there’s an overlap between people who are anti-choice and people who support equal rights and protections for LGBT individuals? There’s far too much evidence that suggests otherwise.
“In contrast, the number of people opposing abortion has risen and intensified since Roe v. Wade.”
No, it hasn’t.
“According to a CNN poll, 62 percent want all or most abortions made illegal.”
No, they don’t.
“That is a 10 percent increase since 1995 … ”
No, it isn’t.
You should probably be more specific about where you got your information. Out of all the polls and interpretations of polls you could have chosen, you chose the one from LifeNews.com, a media organization with such a clear anti-choice agenda that it blatantly skews facts/reality to fit their preconceived beliefs. The CNN poll you’re referencing via LifeNews.com is, for one thing, old. It’s also astoundingly misrepresented, to the point where it’s a joke–a joke that would be endlessly hilarious, if there weren’t people like you who believed it. To get that 62 percent number that you used, the author of the article on LifeNews.com had to change–reverse, in fact–the original language of the poll. Somehow, in that author’s mind, the belief that abortion should be “legal in a few circumstances” is totally identical to the belief that “most abortions [should] be made illegal.”
In the 10 seconds it took for me to debunk your claim, I also found many other polls that suggest the near opposite of what you said. Let me list some of them for you. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 39 percent of Americans think that abortion should be illegal all or most of the time, compared to 54 percent who think that it should be legal all or most of the time; a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found that around 44 percent think it should be illegal in all or most circumstances (9 percent or 35 percent, respectively), while 54 percent think it should be legal in all or most circumstances (31 percent or 23 percent, respectively). Furthermore, the latest CNN poll shows that, of those polled, 15 percent think that abortion should be “illegal under all circumstances”; 47 percent, “legal under certain circumstances”; and 35 percent, “legal under any circumstance.”
“…and is a position that I share: that abortions should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest and health dangers.”
As the polls above suggest, you share a position with maybe a third of Americans surveyed, not two-thirds. So your attempt here to universalize your personal beliefs (and make them seem more prevalent) is baseless and deceptive.
“I think that as medical technology has improved and heart beats and fingers are more visible, Americans are rightfully caring more about the precious and powerless among us.”
This is such an ironic thing for you to say. The real “powerless among us” when it comes to attacks on abortion rights based on “improved medical technology” (or anything else) are girls, women, and children–not the sentimentalized bundles of cells and fetuses that anti-choicers like to throw around. What you seem to be implying, by your choice of words here, is that you care more about the IMAGE of the living–these “more visible” heartbeats and fingers–than the ACTUAL living, particularly girls, women, and children. And you think that Americans are “rightfully” caring more about that too? Seriously? I’ve already debunked this general claim, but the fact that you think that is appalling.
It seems to me, as well, that you don’t recognize the sexism at the core of this issue. You say abortions “should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest and health dangers”–in other words, except in cases where the girl or woman was/is powerless over her body in some way. Yet banning abortions for every other reason puts girls and women (who aren’t the exceptions) in virtually the same position. So, all in all, it seems you’d rather have the norm be girls and women not having control over their bodies–which is also appalling.
LC • Apr 12, 2013 at 6:02 pm
So what’s your point exactly, Ryan? Between the empty words and deception, I just can’t tell. So I’ll just discuss your letter line by line.
“However, if you oppose abortion (according to Jones’ thinking), you must also belong to the same movements that are also anti-woman and anti-LGBT. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Actually, a LOT of things can be “further from the truth” (your claim about how “62 percent want all or most abortions made illegal,” for instance, which I’ll get to later)–but this ain’t one of them. It just so happens that a lot of the anti-choice crowd are, in fact, anti-woman and anti-LGBT. Anyone who is anti-choice and disagrees with that is in denial, hopelessly ignorant, keen on warping facts/reality for their own gain, or wants to make themselves feel ultra-righteous.
“This can be clearly shown in the wide support for much-needed LGBT protections in housing and employment. Further, there has been a sea of change in marriage equality views.”
I find it interesting that you say this (as if it has anything to do with views on abortion rights), and yet you don’t even claim those things for yourself. You say “much-needed” as though YOU care, as though YOU think they’re much-needed–but do you really, do you really care? The only thing you’re doing in these two sentences is spouting words, words that mean absolutely NOTHING in this context. Why should anyone even believe there’s an overlap between people who are anti-choice and people who support equal rights and protections for LGBT individuals? There’s far too much evidence that suggests otherwise.
“In contrast, the number of people opposing abortion has risen and intensified since Roe v. Wade.”
No, it hasn’t.
“According to a CNN poll, 62 percent want all or most abortions made illegal.”
No, they don’t.
“That is a 10 percent increase since 1995 … ”
No, it isn’t.
You should probably be more specific about where you got your information. Out of all the polls and interpretations of polls you could have chosen, you chose the one from LifeNews.com, a media organization with such a clear anti-choice agenda that it blatantly skews facts/reality to fit their preconceived beliefs. The CNN poll you’re referencing via LifeNews.com is, for one thing, old. It’s also astoundingly misrepresented, to the point where it’s a joke–a joke that would be endlessly hilarious, if there weren’t people like you who believed it. To get that 62 percent number that you used, the author of the article on LifeNews.com had to change–reverse, in fact–the original language of the poll. Somehow, in that author’s mind, the belief that abortion should be “legal in a few circumstances” is totally identical to the belief that “most abortions [should] be made illegal.”
In the 10 seconds it took for me to debunk your claim, I also found many other polls that suggest the near opposite of what you said. Let me list some of them for you. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 39 percent of Americans think that abortion should be illegal all or most of the time, compared to 54 percent who think that it should be legal all or most of the time; a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found that around 44 percent think it should be illegal in all or most circumstances (9 percent or 35 percent, respectively), while 54 percent think it should be legal in all or most circumstances (31 percent or 23 percent, respectively). Furthermore, the latest CNN poll shows that, of those polled, 15 percent think that abortion should be “illegal under all circumstances”; 47 percent, “legal under certain circumstances”; and 35 percent, “legal under any circumstance.”
“…and is a position that I share: that abortions should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest and health dangers.”
As the polls above suggest, you share a position with maybe a third of Americans surveyed, not two-thirds. So your attempt here to universalize your personal beliefs (and make them seem more prevalent) is baseless and deceptive.
“I think that as medical technology has improved and heart beats and fingers are more visible, Americans are rightfully caring more about the precious and powerless among us.”
This is such an ironic thing for you to say. The real “powerless among us” when it comes to attacks on abortion rights based on “improved medical technology” (or anything else) are girls, women, and children–not the sentimentalized bundles of cells and fetuses that anti-choicers like to throw around. What you seem to be implying, by your choice of words here, is that you care more about the IMAGE of the living–these “more visible” heartbeats and fingers–than the ACTUAL living, particularly girls, women, and children. And you think that Americans are “rightfully” caring more about that too? Seriously? I’ve already debunked this general claim, but the fact that you think that is appalling.
It seems to me, as well, that you don’t recognize the sexism at the core of this issue. You say abortions “should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest and health dangers”–in other words, except in cases where the girl or woman was/is powerless over her body in some way. Yet banning abortions for every other reason puts girls and women (who aren’t the exceptions) in virtually the same position. So, all in all, it seems you’d rather have the norm be girls and women not having control over their bodies–which is also appalling.