Slut Had It Coming

November 24, 2010

"Pete and I are on different ends of the spectrum when it comes to our beliefs about abortion. I’m sure I will receive considerable harassment about this post, but to me until the baby can survive without the mother (otherwise known as viability) it is not a feasible life. So although my feelings about this pregnancy and Baby “Wiggles” have changed during the time that the website has been up and I don’t believe I could go through with an abortion now, it doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in a woman’s right to make that decision."

—

—Alisha Arnold, the pregnant woman involved in this “Vote on Whether We Have an Abortion!” stunt.

I haven’t posted about this debacle because the whole thing’s been transparently anti-choice troll-y from the word “go” (pro-choicers don’t think random anonymous Internet voters should have the right to make decisions for women any more than the government should) but this most recent post from Alisha has taken the story from “dumb Internet stunt” status to something sadder and more complicated for me. I suspect Pete, her husband, is spearheading this whole thing as a sort of two-fer—a chance to get his blowhard right-wing rocks off online AND a way to coerce his wife into keeping a pregnancy she wasn’t sure she wanted.

So, just a couple of points that really, I’d think should be obvious:

1. Abortion’s not a joke—even us godless whores who demand safe, legal access to it tend to take the decision pretty damn seriously. I’d expect you “sanctity of life” folks to do the same.

2. Coercion is wrong. I fully support Alisha’s decision to keep her pregnancy, just as I’d fully support her decision to terminate. I just really, really hope it’s her decision and not just Petey’s.

Alisha writes: “[M]y opinions and statements seem to be discounted in favor of my husband’s. Since I’m the one carrying the baby it seems to me that this is a terrible oversight on the part of responsible media professionals.”

It seems to me that discounting your opinion—by, say, using it as on opportunity to make a point about abortion in general and neglecting to support you, his wife, during a difficult personal decision—seems to be a terrible oversight on the part of your husband, too, Alisha. That’s the one I’d probably be more concerned about, in your shoes.

I Believe in Choice | Birth or Not

7:55am | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZXftPy1ZYs1s

(Notes: 31)