ÿþ<html> <head> <title>No, opposition to abortion is not hatred of women</title> <style type="text/css" media="screen"> A:link {text-decoration: none} A:visited {text-decoration: none} A:active {text-decoration: none} A:hover {background-color:#000000} </style></head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#FF0000" vlink="#FF0000"> <!-- Header --> <BR> <center><a href="../"><img src="../images/home.jpg" border="0"></a></center> <BR> <TABLE WIDTH="1000" border="0" ALIGN=CENTER> <TR><td width="175" valign=top style="padding-left: 10"> <H3><a href="../about.html" target="_blank"><img src="../images/ConservaTibbs.jpg" border="0"></a> <HR><a href="../about.html">About the Author</a> <HR><a href="http://www.ConservaTibbs.com" target="_blank">ConservaTibbs</a> <HR><a href="../">Opinion Archives</a> <HR><A href="mailto:tibbs1973@yahoo.com">E-mail Scott</A> <HR><A href="../links.html">Scott's Links</A> </H3></td> <td width="825" valign=top bgcolor="#ffffff" style="BORDER: #000000 3px solid"> <BR><blockquote> <H2><a href="blog_2017_038.html">No, opposition to abortion is not hatred of women</a></H2> <P><B>By <a href="../about.html">Scott Tibbs</a>, March 8, 2017</B></P> <P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>When I attended an IU Students for Life meeting a few months ago, it struck me that the room was almost entirely female. It is amazing that the twenty or so women in the room all hate and distrust themselves and want to be oppressed by men. This includes the officers of the group, all of whom are women. The same could be said of many women I know, all of whom hate themselves and want to repress their own sexuality and turn over control of their own bodies to the state.</P> <P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>Obviously, I am being sarcastic. But that leads me to a description of pro-life activism by an <I>Indiana Daily Student</I> columnist last week:</P> <ul><LI>"Abortion opposition is an insidious ramification of hatred, skepticism and distrust toward women. Its purpose is not to help women, but to revoke their bodily, reproductive and sexual ( autonomy."</LI></ul> <P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>I have no doubt the columnist actually believes this and sees people who oppose abortion as holding that position for reprehensible if not outright evil motives. I doubt she even considers arguments about the humanity of the unborn child, and whether that baby is a person with rights. Pro-life views cannot be about protecting human life, it is about hatred and oppression of women. Pro-life women either loathe themselves or are brainwashed and oppressed by men.</P> <P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>I believe abortion is a great evil, so I obviously do not agree with the "pro-choice" position. I do understand it, however. I do not believe all people who are "pro-choice" are all bloodthirsty monsters who just want to murder helpless babies for fun. Many of them have sincerely-held positions that while abortion is terrible, banning it would be worse and would compound the problem rather than make it better. There are people on both sides who act from good faith, and obviously there are some who act in bad faith.</P> <P ALIGN=JUSTIFY>But the position that all opposition to abortion is hatred of women is not a carefully considered or well-reasoned position. It is fanaticism bordering on cult behavior. This is not a position that sees opponents not as wrong, but as blasphemers or heretics. It has often been said that abortion is the sacrament of militant feminism, and this kind of "thinking" is strong evidence for that theory.</P> <hr color="#000000" size="4" noshade><BR> </blockquote></td></TR></TABLE></body></html>