Pro-Choice: Choose Life

[NOTE: This post is not about when a fetus becomes a baby, whether Roe vs. Wade is poor law, or whether abortion should be legal. My views on those are somewhat spelled out here.]

The interesting group of smart guys at the InterGalacticJester include the Great Brendino*, who wrote an excellent post a few days about hypocrisy among some protesters on the far left at competing abortion rallies last week in San Francisco. I actually plan on writing about that, but while perusing the SF Gate article and pictures the post was related to, I saw this picture:

The woman's stomach reads:

My baby is pro-choice.

Now, perhaps the young woman means her baby is choosing to live, but the more likely explanation is that her baby is "pro-choice", or pro-abortion. This would result in the baby's death, which seems pretty illogical from the baby's point of view. Perhaps the mother would die if the child were born, and the noble child wishes to sacrifice its own life for the mother's, but again, I am assuming this is not the case. The lady in the picture seems to be an abortion advocate, plain and simple.

There are a few problems, however. Her very cute attempt at attention for her cause is founded on stupidity. First, it's just plain stupid to claim that an unborn child has a political viewpoint. However, this is obviously meant to make a point, rather than as a serious display of opinion, so let's let that pass. More importantly, if one would project the wishes of an unborn child as to whether it would prefer to live or be killed, the baby would choose life.

But the most glaring idea in this photo is the hypocrisy of the woman. One major piece of logic integral to the pro-abortion movement is the concept that the baby is not a baby, but in fact an unborn fetus. Once a person acknowledges that the fetus is in fact a baby, it becomes stupid not to recognize that baby's abortion as murder. As James Taranto pointed out today, many advocates bend over backward to avoid calling it a baby:

A Baltimore Sun article about abortion law in Maryland contains this curious passage:

Maryland has some 38 crisis pregnancy centers, where counselors try to persuade pregnant women to have their babies. Many centers are in rural areas that don't have clinics that provide abortions. At least two offer free sonograms, an attempt to emphasize to pregnant women the reality of their fetuses. "It makes a powerful difference when they can see [the fetus]," says Pamela Palumbo, executive director of the Bowie Crofton Pregnancy Center, which sees about 1,000 women a year.

Notice that in the quote, the words "the fetus" are in brackets. This is a journalistic convention; it means Palumbo didn't actually say those words, but the reporter has put them in to clarify the meaning. We can't imagine what Palumbo might actually have said.

Much as the Great Brendino pointed out that those who try to silence others in the name of "freedom" are hypocritical, pro-abortion advocates who try and utilize the babies to prove their points are hypocritical. Nobody in their right mind views abortion as a positive which "even the babies want"; the issue is whether the rights of the mother trump that of the child, when, and up to what point.

Some people are just stupid.

* defined by fellow IGJ member Croaky as "'South Park Republican,' Dislikes Conservatives But Really Dislikes Liberals"

Technorati tags: Abortion, Life, Choice, Protests, Rallies, San Francisco.