In the video above, I mention the first time I was challenged on what I believe about abortion came in the early 2000s. One of my closest friends then was an Oklahoma politician in the House of Representatives working under Senator Jim Inhofe. He asked me how I voted. I told him I vote for whoever earns my vote. I do not go on party lines. That is when he convinced me that if I was against abortion, I was a Republican. No need to try and figure it out. That actually sounded kind of nice at the time. Just vote for Republican, and then you know they are taking care of one issue you care about. But was abortion the one thing I cared about? I must confess this issue just was not that important to me until 2016. I had friends who had had abortions and for very good reasons. I also had been in a church that tried to emotionally manipulate the entire congregation with a sonogram on the screen during service to have us listen to the heartbeat. I was affected by that, but I did not think about it much once I left the service.
I had some conversations with people discussing the ethics of abortions if a woman was raped. I struggled. I talked in the community about if taking the life of an innocent unborn child was the right solution, even if a woman was raped. It was easy for me to have those conversations back then for several reasons: I wasn’t a parent, I had never been raped, I had never had a difficult pregnancy, I was not poor, and I never thought about those discussion topics as flesh and blood people’s experiences. When I did hear real stories, I was more affected. I had two friends have abortions, and the reasons for them most of us would not question. I also knew another friend whose baby was not going to survive outside of the pregnancy. She chose, and she got to choose then!, to carry it to term and enjoy the life of the child while it was in her womb. In every situation, the woman got to choose. That is how it should be. Whatever reason a woman has an abortion, that should remain between her, the doctor, and anyone else directly involved with the pregnancy. It is not up for public discussion. This literally is not the government’s business.
I find it odd how the Far-Right wants the government out of everything except a woman’s body. I now know why. The woman’s body births the labor force. How incredibly cruel is that? Listen, I know many would take offense at me saying that, but their actions are what I pay attention to, not what they say. Here is how I know:
1. Abortion was not a problem to them when Roe was passed initially
2. Paul Weyrich, an American conservative political activist associated with the New Right and co-founded the Heritage Foundation, got Jerry Falwell on board with the idea of using abortion as his schtick. Weyrich was Catholic, and Falwell resisted b/c the abortion issue was a Catholic thing. Being Catholic used to be taboo—remember the reason America was formed? Weyrich only cared about white conservative politics—and was absolutely resisting FDR’s New Deal—and because he was Catholic, abortion was the thing he could exploit and call it his faith’s work to carry out his real goal—white conservative politics. Falwell relented once he realized black children were going to be bused to school with white children (public schools have always been their target because they are the cornerstone of democracy and inclusion), and immigration was bringing in a flood of people who were not white and not Protestant. Rather than saying he was a racist, saying he was anti-abortion sounded better—moral, even. This is how evangelicals and Catholics ended up on the same side again. I wish I could say it because love brought them together again. Catholics are just as guilty as evangelicals for Christian nationalism. We need to talk about that more. It is wild how Falwell went from resisting abortion as an issue to blaming 9/11 on abortions. Lies make you say outrageous, dumb, dangerous, and cruel things.
They are afraid of the declining birth rate, not the unborn children. It is true. Our birth rate is down, but no policies have ever worked to fix that problem. Just look at China! Why not make immigration a solution?
I could keep going, but that is enough background for this post. This is not a research paper, but my research has paid off. I remember when I realized Christian nationalists go after public schools (I said it out loud in class), and then a week or two later, they went after mine. Sorry, CNs, I am not here for it.
So, knowing that, let’s talk to Stuckey about abortion and healthcare. Remember how she says progressives like to talk in euphemisms, “abortion is healthcare” is one she is calling out. She gives a couple of examples as to why it is not healthcare but murder, and I will get to that in a second. But something I found funny that she said in her introduction on abortion is when we call them hateful, callous, bigoted, racist, or any other epithet, it is because we do not know why we believe what we believe and are so insecure it manifests in anger. Um, Allie Beth, I just gave you research on why The Right’s stance on abortion is, in fact, all of those things. I am not personally calling you those things, but I am saying you are serving those things. You can repent and listen to another side and be affected. I have done the research on this. My passion for reproductive justice does not come from my “toxic empathy.” I realized in 2016 that abortion was the cornerstone for the Right’s tyranny, and public schools, the cornerstone of democracy, are the target of their desired destruction. Public schools are the biggest obstacle to their plans. Public schools, with all its flaws, is where we gather with people who are different from us and realize our worlds are bigger than our bubble.
Thank be to God. This is why public education is my passion.
Stuckey begins the abortion chapter with an example of a woman in Texas who was twenty weeks pregnant with a baby who had anencephaly. The baby would not be able to live past birth, so she wanted an abortion. But Texas laws did not allow it. Unless the life of the mother is in danger, Texas will not give an abortion. Texas used to allow this. This is a recent change, and I want my friends to wake up to this fact. Women in Iran used to have a lot more rights, and now they are suppressed. We are on our way, too. Stuckey extends her sympathy to this family for the terror it must have been carrying this baby to term and also now incurring a huge funeral cost, but the abortion would have been worse—according to Stuckey. She talks about the suffering of aborted babies, which was information that was straight out of her conspiracy theory research. She also acted like late-term abortions were something people wanted to do. Women who have had late-term abortions are for very serious reasons. Allie Beth is talking as an authority on something she is not an expert in. She is not only committing spiritual malpractice, this is also medical malpractice. This is giving medical advice without a license. I also think lawmakers who make laws on abortion are committing spiritual and medical malpractice too. The government and the church are overstepping their authority.
She also talks about the dark side of abortion and Margaret Sanger. She gives some very serious and dark research statistics on Sanger, and I am not sure these accusations are true. Martin Luther King Jr. has praised Margaret Sanger and said she has helped the black community.
Instead of trying to refute the serious accusations Stuckey is bringing against Sanger, because I have not done enough research on her to know how much of that is true. Here is what I do know:
Making abortions illegal is a form of class warfare. It keeps people poor, and they do have more babies—lack of access to contraceptives, lack of education, entertainment, etc—are all factors in why they have more babies. They also can’t afford them. Sanger was addressing these issues through Planned Parenthood.
If Stuckey really cares about this, then she would be addressing poverty. Sanger was doing that, and that is why MLK Jr. praised her work.
Planned Parenthood does way more than abortions. Abortions are the smallest portion of what they do. They provide healthcare for women who are poor or in abusive relationships. Pregnancy Centers do not provide any of this. I have done the research—no education on unwanted pregnancies, no trauma therapists, no medical access. Pregnancy Centers only provide free sonograms and pregnancy tests, and one of our current representatives who serves on the education committee, Cody Maynard, wants to give a tax credit to pregnancy centers. They are trying to take out Planned Parenthood.
Making abortions illegal is class warfare b/c the wealthier you are, the fewer babies you have. This is to get poor people stuck in their lower class. Wealthy people will still get their abortions.
The Far-Right pretends to care about race when they talk about abortion. But how you know they don’t care is if you engage them on how poverty is driving this. Planned Parenthood was set up to be a social good; it is not preying on them. They need healthcare, and abortion is healthcare. It should have never been siloed out of healthcare as a separate topic. The Right will accuse and blame, but if you address them on issues we could take on to reduce abortions outside of criminalizing it and making them illegal, they refuse that conversation. If someone is reading this disagrees and can refute me with specific actions they have taken outside of banning abortions, I would love to talk to you. I want a world where people who do not want to have abortions are forced into them due to their circumstances. Did you know that most abortions are for people who already have children? They cannot afford another mouth to feed.
Who is ready to talk about it more holistically than Allie Beth is doing? She is preying on emotions and trying to make certain people evil, like Margaret Sanger, to make her point. She is offering no solutions, and she is not talking about any of the trade-offs to the points she is making. That is not how you research and come to good conclusions.
I ignored abortion until 2016. When I realized it was the gateway to this evil we have let loose in our culture, it became my passion. I know what I am talking about, and I am not afraid to talk about it. This is not toxic empathy. This is called being a good neighbor.
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