From: nyikos@math.scarolina.edu (Peter Nyikos)
Subject: Re: A mirror for Adrienne Regard's NO OTHER HUMAN...
Keywords: puberty, surrealistic
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Date: 26 Aug 92 19:05:51 GMT

In <1992Aug24.201913.15607@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> mprc@troi.cc.rochester.edu (M. Price) writes:

>In <nyikos.714615572@milo.math.scarolina.edu> nyikos@math.scarolina.edu (Peter Nyikos) writes:

>>In <1992Aug23.201147.20315@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> mprc@troi.cc.rochester.edu (M. Price) writes:


>>>     "The Handmaid's Tale" no more perpetuates misogyny than "1984"
>>>perpetuates totalitarianism.

It does if it makes people choose to blind themselves to the evils
perpetrated on women by abortionists today.

>     It is the most powerful book I have ever read, and fast becoming
>canonical ( I know of at least four university instructors who teach it
>right here).

For credit?  Ask them this: can they give a single example of a woman
who was prosecuted for having an abortion done on her, in the whole 
history of America OR England OR Australia OR Canada? 

Then ask them, how many rape cases, other than marital rape, were ignored
by law enforcement authorities on the grounds that rape is not a crime?
(I mean, besides in the days before the 13th amendment, when rape of slaves
may not have been a crime.)


>>>>> raped,

>>>>I have already gone on record in talk.abortion as not wishing to 
>>>>impose a law prohibiting
>>>>abortion prior to the 6th week [not month, but it still allows plenty of
>>>>time after a skipped period] after fertilization.  The only reason I might
>>>>possibly reconsider this is if the consequences for the WOMAN are 
>>>>unacceptable.

>>> Does this make you pro-choice?

>>So long as the self-designated "pro-choice" groups do not break their
>>solidarity with abortionists who have demonstrated a callous indifference
>>toward the health and welfare of their patients, as in my COERCED ABORTION
>>post of last month, I reject the label with loathing.

> So long as the self-designated "Pro-life" groups do not break their
>solidarity with the terrorists I saw a couple of weeks ago persecuting
>the two young children of a local doctor, I reject your philosophy with
>loathing.

The two situations are not the same.  Before you pass judgment on my
philosophy you have to tell me what exactly this persecution consisted of,
and then if I do not break solidarity with these people you call
terrorists, then your conclusion will be valid.  [I'm not sure, though,
where the pro-life groups come into this.  I'm pretty sure you already
reject with loathing the "pro-life" label being pinned on you.]


>>See a comment above.  I don't waste my time on hack writing, and this
>>comment of yours reinforces my suspicions that the book is just that.
>>I was being partly ironic in my "trust" comment.

>     Oh, so now you've judged the book without even reading it! How
>intelligent and open-minded!

A suspicion is not a judgment.  Was there ever a pro-life book you did
not suspect of being bullshit?  {Append a wry smiley here.}

>     Huxley's LInda would have had an abortion had she not fallen down a
>ravine, become concussed and been accidentally abandoned in Malpais
>before she knew of her pregnancy. She lyrically extols the abortion
>center to Lenina.

Did she regret the fact that John had been born?

>     Perhaps you would like to quiz me?

Thanks, it saves me a trip to the library and lots of leafing through the
book.  One thing I still can't figure out is, why didn't Linda leave
the reservation until her son John was grown up?  Couldn't she get any
one of the many groups of tourists to take her away from that awful
reservation, until Lenina's came along?

>     In terms of closeness, check out the final chapter of Susan
>Faludi's _Backlash_. Perhaps you will notice some examples of real-life
>American fetal Idolatry, including one very distressing one in which the
>woman dies partly from the result of intrusive Cesarian surgery to save
>a stillborn 5 1/2 month fetus expressly against her own wishes. 

I'll check whether our library has it.  If not, do you mind some more
quizzing?

Newsgroups: talk.abortion