So I caused a little flare up on the Grounded Parents Facebook Page when I shared this satisfying rant from friend of the network and FtBlogger Dana Hunter at En Tequila Es Verdad
Two old white men whine about abortion. (Well, they also lie extravagantly, but I just want to address this more commonly-spouted bit):
“’It’s a pile of babies almost 70 million babies tall, mountains and mountains and mountains of babies,’ Jim Bakker said.”
Okay, Jim “Convicted Felon” Bakker. Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about abolishing abortion so all those precious “babies” lived.Who’s paying for them? Who’s supporting the millions of kids who would’ve otherwise have been aborted because Mommy and Daddy* couldn’t afford them? Who’s paying for their health care, food, shelter, and education through college? Who’s paying for daycare and diapers and all the billion and one things children need to have a successful childhood? Who’s supporting Moms and Dads with social programs meant to keep them from working themselves to death while their children starve because you can’t support even a small family on minimum wage?
That’s not you, because conservatives spend at least as much energy ratfucking the poor and gutting aid programs as they do demanding war and fighting to deny pregnant people any reproductive care.
It’s a no holds barred rant against the kind of selective concern that anti-choice, pro-forced birthers have for the precious little babies right up to when 
they come squealing out of the mommy beast, at which point the lil shit becomes somebody else’s problem. I shared it because I agreed with the sentiment wholeheartedly, as well as firmly believing that it fit really well with our own editorial stance.
Boy did this surprise some of the folks who follow the GP Facebook page. Within minutes someone had posted the image to our right along with the quote…
Every human life is precious. Abortion is the holocaust of our time. There are people like this woman who will raise them.
We left that one up there because the thread ended up with quite a discussion afterwards. Here are a few interesting bits, with replies by our own Erich Bacher doing yeoman’s work moderating. I’ll keep the comments anonymous, we’ll just refer to the original complainant as Forced Birth Troll, or FBT.
Forced Birth Troll: So children who are already born deserve to continue to live, even if they are a drain on the system, are in pain, have profound deformities? I agree. Why are they worthy after they are born, but not before?
Grounded Parents: The debate that you are looking for FBT, which is to determine where life begins exactly, has many many forums that you can engage, so please take it to one of them. This site is unequivocally pro-choice.
Other FBT: Well, thanks GP, that’s me outta here.
(Abortion pushed on my mother by bullying doctors – I’m a survivor and glad to be alive)
Grounded Parents: I’m sorry to hear that happened to your mother OFBT. I’d just like to point out that someone pressuring a woman to have an abortion is not pro-choice.
Other FBT: Yet, I have been assured many times that if my mother had “chosen” to believe the scare tactics, my death would have been okay. Because choice.
Sorry, but no.
Yet another FBT: Wow! I can’t believe the hate in this article. Yes, I am pro life and I did not realize that GP was not. I am saddened about that. I will now stop following your page. This type of callousness about human life is ridiculous and breath taking. And yes, I am a Republican who supports helping others. I believe in strong families, caring neighbors and Christian values. And I have 5 biological children of my own and we have also adopted. Do not lump all prolifers into one group that says ‘you must have that baby yet we won’t lift a finger to help you with the real practical aspect of that baby’.
The Original FBT: I liked the page for the science and the pro-vaccine stance. I think it’s interesting that I’m being shooed away for bringing up the question of when life begins on a post about abortion.
Grounded Parents: (to FBT) we’d love to discuss this article, regarding the societal implications and economic weight of the children who would have been born if not for abortion, but we cannot have that discussion if we instead debate when life begins and the morality of abortion. Which seems to happen every time this topic comes up.
Pro Choice Hero: I would argue, (FTB), that if there is any reason to shoo you away it would be for using inflammatory language like “abortion is the holocaust of our time”.
Other FBT: For centuries churches and charitable organisations worldwide have done just that – taken care of that “economic weight”. What makes you think all the help in the world is no longer available? What makes death preferable to a life without XBox? Are today’s generation of adults really so selfish?
Grounded Parents: From the congressional commission on adoption.
We aren’t even caring for the children that were born. An additional hypothetical 70 million more would result in harsher conditions than “no xbox.”
Mary Brock of GP Fame laying the hammer down: GP is an unequivocally pro-choice site and it’s not up for debate. Women choose abortions for many different reasons, and calling it “selfish” means that you don’t really understand the issues. If being pro-choice is offensive to you, then we will never agree about this issue.
But isn’t that censorship?
But, but…
That’s really closed minded…
Grounded Parents Fanatic: Astounded that people following GP would be surprised that it is pro-choice…
I am Pro-Choice, BUT…
All I want for Christmas is an abortion
Having a Baby Made Me More Pro-Choice
Guest Post: Tales from an Abortion Clinic Escort
There’s a Time and Place for Fetus Jokes
In response to a “pro-life atheist”
Were they just coming for the pretty pictures?
Seriously almost fell out of my chair laughing at “Get Down With Your Bad Self (official catchphrase of the Grounded Parents Podcast).” and the accompanying tag.
Their shock would seem to indicate that they assume all parents are anti-choice.
This post is just awesome.
Fundamentally, I think being pro-choice is mostly a position people arrive at through evidence-based observation. Like comprehensive sexual education, if the actual data didn’t provide serious evidence that it worked, the fight would likely fall to those with strong opinions about the ideas themselves.
So… it’s natural that more often than not skeptics end up pro-choice. Thinking just about the ideas of abortion, without respect to evidence based outcomes, it can seem very unsavory. But when you look at empirical observation about how children actually in the adoption system fair, the idea of “adopt don’t abort” suddenly becomes untenable.
White-male Canadian idiot here. I just assumed the future was progress, but apparently abortion rights are getting worse? Wtf? What’s going on down there?
That isn’t a bad question hitthepass. From a layman’s perspective (I’m in no way an expert on these issues, just an avid observer), the pro life movement has 3 arms. One is the Catholic Church (the institution, the number of pro choice Catholics in the US is surprisingly high.) The Moral Majority/Religious Right, the largely Protestant and Southern conservative Christians, and the Republican party, who cynically manipulate the other pro life groups in order to capture their voting loyalties.
But it’s not just the bad guys doing bad things that make this such a mess. The Democratic party may be officially pro choice, but they have a history of milquetoast leadership on the issue. And the US American public has often been apathetic in the face of this onslaught against reproductive rights.
I’m currently reading Katha Pollitt’s “Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights” and I plan to write a review when I’m done (next week sometime), where I’ll have a better answer to this question.
Of course it is censorship. The definition and use does not exclude public or private action. The key is that the censorship is irrelevant.