So, honey, you're wondering what's so terrible about abortion? Well lemme mansplain it to ya. Abortion is terrible, horrible, and really bad, because it deprives a man of his right to force his girlfriend, his casual sex partner, the girl he met in a one night stand, to make him a baby that he really doesn't intend to parent. And, you see, if you have an abortion, you might just ruin his life. Like, for reals.
That's pretty much the gist of this production from Heroic Media, a Texas based anti-abortion advocacy group that seems to think abortion really gets down to how it makes a man feel.
It's so over the top that it feels like parody, but it isn't. (As appalling as it is, it isn't even the worst thing Heroic Media has ever put out – that dubious honor probably goes to its “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb”
campaign).
Heroic Media actually has a trio of Dudes of Christ (they're all religious leaders or churchgoers) sitting around sharing their feelings, about how sad they are that they allowed their exes to have abortions.
Because her body, their choice.
Some of the lowlights? Well, right out of the gate, there's the straight-faced count from each man of how many abortions he's had.
“I had an abortion.”
“I've had two abortions.”
“I had an abortion.”
I'm seriously having a hard time fathoming the sense of entitlement it must take to declare that a medical procedure another person had was yours. Then, of course, there were the apologies...
John Blandford's was patriarchal concern:
“I'm sorry that women were subjected to such a terrible thing. And no one tried to rescue you.”
Pastor Shane Idleman reminds us how men really aren't a strong enough presence in the anti-abortion movement:
“I'm sorry for men not taking a greater stand in this area.”
And then Daniel Phillips – the guy who “had two abortions” – gets down to the crux of the matter:
“I'm sorry that this is available.”
But, in case you weren't completely convinced yet that abortion really is about the suffering of the man (apparently only years later, when it's convenient to his career), Pastor Idleman's discussion of regret should seal the deal.
The pain of regret is one of the hardest pains to deal with. Because of the constant reminder that we let down God, we let down others and we let down our child.
And there's plenty of sad music, uneasy finger twitching, hand wringing and so on throughout. Because, really, women, you need to think about how this will affect your partner. Yes, he might not want a kid now. He might be “neither here nor there” on abortion when it counts, like Daniel Phillips, but you know what? Years later, after he's “had” a few abortions and then settled down, he might regret it. And did you ever stop to think about that, eh? Did you ever stop to think what forcing an abortion on an unwilling, or willing, man (by ending your own unwanted pregnancy) might do to him? Because what, after all, is a woman's body, if not a man's baby-maker? What, after all, is an abortion, if not a deprivation of a man's rights to force his sex partner to bear him children?
And that, my friends, is abortion, right-wing Christian-mansplained for you. Just in case you needed to know why a woman having the right to decide when and if she'll be pregnant was bad, now you know: a man she's slept with might not approve. And, even if he does at the time, he might change his mind later. So, yeah, case pretty much closed...
(Story via Friendly Atheist.)
This article originally posted at
Rachel's Hobbit Hole.