From: mills@uga.edu (Kathi Mills)
Subject: Re: A Question for the Pro-Lifers or Anti-Abortionists or whatever
Organization: University of Georgia Economics Department
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 15:11:54 GMT

> Kalb
>> rocker
>>> R. Pitts

>>>If you are pleading on the half of incest or rape victims, that is
>>>one matter.  However, the MAJORITY do not fall into this and they 
>>>DO NOT fall into this supposed UNWILLING catagory.  They may and 
>>>probably do fall into the UNPLANNED or rather LACK OF PLANNING 
>>>catagory or even into the UNEDUCATED one.  Families needs to teach their 
>>>children (males and females) how to control their body - don't just let 
>>>them run wild and then excuse their actions.  The error of thinking
>>>that pregancy is unwilling is that the action (the sex act) is so 
>>>trivialized and young girls think they need to give themselves to
>>>some supposed man to gain acceptance.  Everyone needs to learn self-control
>>>and self-acceptance.  One doesn't really gain either by having sex.

>>For someone who professes to be a Christian, you sound terribly
>>full of hate.  Perhaps you should ask yourself why this is so.

>Would you explain how the posting you comment on displays hate?

God, I guess I'll try to limit myself to the top 10 reasons (there are so
many).

1.  The reason for allowing rape victims to have abortions, when one wants
    to ban almost all other abortions, is because in that case the woman
    did not consent to sex and therefore should not have to bear its
    consequences.  The converse of this, of course, is that women who have
    sex willingly should have to bear any bad consequences; i.e., women
    who willingly have sex are bad and should be punished.
2.  The above post assumes that anyone who becomes pregnant unwillingly
    has "run wild" and not controlled her body; that all unwanted
    pregnancy, except that which results from rape, is the result of 
    wanton and reckless disreagard for the welfare of the fetus(es) that
    may result.
3.  The above post assumes that an unwanted pregnancy is somehow the fault
    of the parents of the partners.  If the couple is assumed to be too
    young to be responsible for their actions, Richard can always direct
    his venom at the next convenient scapegoat - their parents. 
4.  Richard only acknowledges one reason, in this post, why unwanted 
    pregnancies occur (besides rape and incest): "young girls think they
    need to give themselves to some supposed man to gain acceptance."  The
    fact that this is the only reason that Richard saw fit to mention for 
    pregnancy (as a result of consensual intercourse), shows that he must
    think it is a very prevalent reason.  This is another blame-the-woman
    attitude - the woman shouldn't have had sex.  Of course, Richard fails
    to mention any wrong reasons for men to have sex; he does not, for
    instance, say "men should not have sex for the purpose of appearing
    macho."  Richard may indeed feel that way, but the fact that he chose
    only to berate WOMEN'S (or rather, girls') reasons for having sex 
    testifies to a misogynistic viewpoint.
5.  The above post seems to assume that only children have unwanted 
    pregnancies ("Families should teach their children ... young girls
    need ...").  This belies an assumption that unwanted pregnancy is a
    problem only for immature, irresponsible people; and the converse,
    that mature, responsible adults do not have unwanted pregnancies.
6.  Abortion is portrayed as an easy way out of a "LACK OF PLANNING."  It
    is not shown as the responsible, mature decision that it is.  All women
    who have made the choice to abort are dismissed as "UNEDUCATED" people
    who "run wild and then excuse their actions."
7.  The entire sex act itself is berated, and those who engage in it
    (presumably for any reason other than procreation) have failed to
    "control their bodies."  As mentioned above, the only reason Richard
    mentioned for consensual sex is peer pressure.  He also says, "Everyone
    needs to learn self-control," i.e., that engaging in sex is fundamentally
    indecent, and the urge to do so should be controlled.  He sees fit only
    to mention bad things about sex, without any recognition that sex is
    most often physically and emotionally beneficial to both partners.  He
    does not seem to recognize that sex has any good qualities whatsoever.
8.  Richard claims that "the MAJORITY" of women who have unwanted pregnancies
    are not incest or rape victims.  How does he know this?  One out of every
    six (or some number close to that) women in the U.S. is raped in her
    lifetime.  Millions more women are raped each year than the 1.25 million
    who have abortions, yet Richard prefers to believe that the majority
    of unwanted pregnancies result from lack of responsible planning.         
9.  Richard's writing is unclear at best, but I interpret the sentence, "The
    error of thinking that pregnancy is unwilling is that the action (the
    sex act) ..." to mean, "It is an error to think that the woman is 
    unwilling to become pregnant, since she engaged in the sex act, which
    itself has become so trivialized ..."  This implies strongly that women
    who have unwanted pregnancies secretly wished to become pregnant.  This
    is a very misogynistic assumption.
10. It is hateful to assume that many women, or even teenage girls, are a
    bunch of mindless zombies who cave in to society's "trivialization of
    sex" without a thought as to the possible consequences.

-- 
Ferrari (mills@rolf.stat.uga.edu)
Newsgroups: talk.abortion,alt.abortion.inequity