queerbychoice | Unborn Victims of Violence

~~Dear~~ U.S. Government,

I hear you're concerned about "Unborn Victims of Violence." Well, so am I! I'm concerned about how after all the currently gestating Unborn Clumps of Fetal Cells who have not yet developed even enough of a brain to compete with a goldfish actually get born and, a year or so later, actually start catching up with the intelligence levels of the cats and dogs whose deaths in animal shelters are certainly never prosecuted as "murders" and, another decade or so after that, reach puberty and get raped or just have sex while massively uneducated about birth control options, the law you passed today will do violence to them. Because the females among those by-then-long-since-born people who, by that point in their development, will have completely fully functional nervous systems to feel pain and brains to feel fear and horror and degradation, will be forcibly strapped onto operating tables and their bodies surgically cut open without their consent by the same prosecutors who are already charging Melissa Ann Rowland with "murder" simply for having dared to refuse doctors their supposed "right" to cut her open. And you designed this law you passed today specifically to help doctors forcibly cut open women like her without their consent, which means you designed this law specifically to do violence to the same future females who you then have the audacity to be claiming to "protect" from violence.

Furthermore, I would like to hear your answers to the questions

wiredferret insightfully asks:

If you are certain that life begins at fertilization, what do you have to tell me about my early-term miscarriages?
There is no comforting reflection about non-viability, then, is there?
Every child washed out of a womb before birth is a death, isn't it?
Does God really kill a third of us before we even open our eyes in the womb? Does that work for you?

There are disturbing implications, then.

Does my low progesterone level mean that I should stop trying to conceive, because God means my children to die?
Can I be prosecuted for inadvertently doing something harmful, before I even know I'm pregnant?
What about not seeking medical treatment to correct my miscarriage problems, is that manslaughter?
Are you going to go after polluters that increase the rate of spontaneous abortion with the same ferocity?
What if it turns out that a husband and wife will always produce flawed embryos, because of their genetics -- are they guilty of attempted murder every time they try to have sex?

I would especially like to know the answer to that question about polluters, because it might result in a large number of the mostly male people who pass laws like this being convicted of mass murder. Please reply ASAP, preferably from prison. Not that you shouldn't still go to prison anyway for injuring people's reproductive organs without their consent, but now your having increased the severity of your own crime from injury against the people you've rendered involuntarily sterile to committing actual murder against the entire maxmum number of babies those people were capable of producing should get you an even longer jail term.

Disgust,
Gayle

And while waiting for a reply to that (ha, right!), I'm going to suggest that more people, especially Americans, sign a bunch of petitions. It takes less time than voting, and probably has slightly more chance of having some effect than voting, plus it helps relieve some of the emotional frustration of being helpless. Which, judging by the journal entries I'm reading this evening, is something that quite a few of you could really use right now.

The Freedom of Choice Act Petition
Stop President Bush from Declaring Fetuses as People
Tell the Court: Late Term Abortion Ban is Unconstitutional
Against Abortion Parental Consent Laws and "Teen Endangerment Act"
It's the 30th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade - Will It Be the Last?
Tell Ashcroft to keep women's medical records private!
The Bush Administration Threatens Access to Emergency Contraception
Tell Congress: We Want Insurance Coverage for Birth Control
Protect Freedom of Choice
March for Women's Lives in 2004!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That line from my original post was referring to fetuses extremely early in development, who are included under the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. A zygote, for example, does not feel pain. It does not possess any nerves with which to feel it.

"I think that if abortions were limited to people with extenuating circumstances, I would feel much more comfortable with the whole thing."

Attempting to place legal limits on abortions requiring extenuating circumstances results in people having to prove they have extenuating circumstances, which, considering that about .0000000001% of rapes ever get reported to police (and no wonder, considering how Kobe Bryant's accuser has had her picture on the cover of the National Enquirer, her name all over the internet, and her sexual and mental health history published absolutely everywhere, that rape victims would not want to report they were raped) and an even tiner percentage of those ever go to trial and an even tinier percentage of those result in conviction, essentially results in withholding abortion from the HUGE majority of such victims.

"Unfortunately, Gayle, I personally know multiple people who were not careful enough to prevent pregnancy, and chose abortion over adaptations to their comfortable lifestyles."

And you know what? The women who do such things have to experience abortion, which is quite decidedly more physically painful for them than using birth control would have been. They already get punished for their carelessness, with no legal intervention at all.

"And, I also know plenty of parents who can't seem to figure out that they should put children first after they are born, much less before."

And that's exactly why I very much prefer that selfish parents abort their children instead of raising them badly - because I would prefer not to share the planet with a bunch of people who were raised by such horrendously awful parents that they grew up to be murderers, rapists, and sociopaths.

"I think way more people in our country are selfish than are victimized."

That's possible, but considering that approximately one in every four females in the U.S. gets raped, that adds up to a hell of a lot of both.

I really don't think most abortions are from rape. But, I support those women, of course.

And, I am not for making abortion illegal, or even setting legal limits. I am just sick of how easily people make the abortion decision.

Also, I think that women often feel like they "should" get an abortion rather than bring a child into a situation they hadn't planned on. I know many women who still grieve (myself included) for a baby they aborted.. because the pressure was to abort rather than to "mess up their lives". Well, now that I have a child of my own, I'll tell you, I wish my life was "messed up" a long time ago.

oops, that was me again..

-angela

Unborn Victims of Violence

Re: ugh

Re: ugh

Re: ugh