As many other bloggers have noted, today is “Protest the Pill Day ’08: The Pill Kills Babies.” It’s brought to you by the same women-hating nuts you would expect — The American Life League. And pro-choicers aren’t making this shit up.
You see, birth control pills kill “5 to 9-day-old babies.” Meaning fertilized eggs. The theory is that a fertilized egg is a baby, and birth control pills can prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterine lining. Therefore, the pill causes abortions, killing babies.
There are multiple logical fallacies here. The first is the suggestion that a fertilized egg is a baby. It’s, er, not. Secondly, pregnancy starts with implantation, which means that it’s impossible for an abortion to occur before implantation. Thirdly, more fertilized eggs fail to implant than succeed, regardless of whether or not you’re using contraception. And lastly, oops, evidence that the pill actually prevents implantation doesn’t quite exist. And nope, not only according to Planned Parenthood — also according to (slightly more) principled pro-lifers (thanks Lisa).
Jill points out a whole bunch of other ridiculousness that comes along with supposing that fertilized eggs are babies. Marcella points out the misogynist double-standard of supposing that women who take birth control pills and have heterosexual intercourse are murderers, while not suggesting that men are therefore accomplices.
For my part, I say go for it, wingnuts. Knock yourselves out.
You see, the American Life League is actually doing us, pro-choicers, the world’s biggest favor. They’re pointing out once and for all — much better than we have ever succeeded in doing — that they don’t give a shit about babies, but really, really do love to hate women.
Those of us pay attention know this already. But unfortunately, most people don’t pay attention. And the forced-birth proponents do a damn good job of tricking people into believing that this is all about the babies and not even remotely about controlling women’s sexuality and ensuring that we go back to the good old days where if you fucked a woman — including and perhaps especially if you raped her — she became your property. Generally, they try to hide this sort of thing, because it makes them look both incredibly stupid and incredibly bigoted. If they want to abandon that and protest outside of birth control clinics for the express purpose of saying that contraception is murder, I say that we roll out the red carpet.
The fact is, this isn’t going to catch on. If I thought it might, I’d probably just ignore it. But let them take out billboards, because there’s no fucking way that this is going to do anything but alienate people who might otherwise be on their side.
Let me break it down for you: more than 80% of American women have taken birth control pills in their lifetimes. And 98% have used some form of contraception. We have to assume that at least a percent or two of those 18% of contraception users who didn’t use the pill used some sort of other hormonal method — which all of the claims about the pill apply to — or that they will use the pill or another form of hormonal contraception later on. And how many men have knowingly, and very, very happily had sex with women on birth control pills? Sure, at the current rates, one-third of American women will have an abortion. But most are too ashamed to talk about it. Once you get out of high school, virtually no one is ashamed about taking hormonal contraception. It’s a part of daily life and hasn’t been seen as immoral for decades. Even among Catholics!
Most people like sex, have sex with members of the opposite sex, don’t want to be permanently attached to every person they fuck, and enjoy not having 10 or more children. A whole lot of people, particularly in committed relationships, don’t like condoms — not to mention that they’re not quite as effective, and that if anti-choicers got their way with the pill, condoms would be next on the agenda. What this tells me is that people may want to turn back the clock on abortion, but very few would like to erase the entire (though still unfinished) sexual revolution. Their knowing once and for all that this is the goal of the “pro-life” movement is nothing but good news.
So thanks, anti-choicers! Keep up the good work.
[LOLPILLS made by me, for the occasion. You can haz with credit.]
{ 32 comments }
LOLPILLS made me lol. The pro-life lunacy just made my brain melt.
OMG. LOLPILLZ TOTALLY MADE MY DAY. Linking back to you with it!
They’re just so out there, just so damn out there.
Can you photoshop little angrysmileys onto them?
In Montana, specifically, an initiative entitled CI-100 is on the ballot to not only outlaw abortion, but also the birth control pill, on the grounds that it is a form of abortion in itself.
(Oops, hit send.)
CI-100 would further allow the state government to probe the medical records of Montana women who have had miscarriages, in order to determine whether or not these events were, in fact, self-abortions. This measure is so extreme that even the local Catholic archdiocese and the Montana Right to Life Coalition are refusing to endorse it. Now, you know your radical misogyny has reached a new plateau when even the Catholic Church is telling you to back off!
It’s getting scary out there.
Sara
that LOLPILLS made me laugh SO HARD CARA. omg.
i’m lurking as usual but had to say something…keep up the amazing work!!!! :D
That picture is GREAT! Good job.
Hi,
in fact I’m not against women or choice or anything. But I feel like afertilized egg is a potential baby and don’t think this way of seeing it is ridiculous.
I was owkring on something for my university about science with embryonal stem cells – and yes, I think there’s a problem if you use fertilized eggs, small embryos for science.
I don’t know how the best way is to handle all this and I’m not an agressive woman who says hates women or babies or anything.
But just when does life start? It’s a big question.
Every woman should have her choice and I would never condamne someone because of an abortion or abortion pills but I would definitely not feel good after taking them or having one.
So everyone needs his own opinion when life starts but still needs to tlerate others – that’s my point of view.
Best wishes – Laura from Germany (so sorry for mistakes)
Laura,
A fertilized egg is absolutely a potential baby. That is indeed different though from it being a baby, which is the view that The Pill Kills is advocating.
In any case, I have nothing against those for whom issues like abortion are a personal moral issue. I have no problem with a point of view that says “I cannot imagine myself having an abortion and feel that it was a morally sound decision, but my feelings shouldn’t be imposed on other women and I think all should be free to make their own choices.” And that’s what you seem to believe. I think that everyone has the right to make their own choices about their own beliefs and their own bodies. That includes both having and not having an abortion, both using and not using contraception, and so on. Your point of view, as presented here, is absolutely not one that I was criticizing.
THANK YOU for this. I’ve seen all of these ridiculous ads around claiming that birth control kills babies. This could not be farther from the truth. It’s sort of funny, we don’t even need to go to great lengths to prove them wrong – all we need to do is present them with the simple facts that they’ve been trying to hide (as you have done in this entry). Really, they do a good enough job discrediting themselves that we hardly need to.
Have you thought there may actually be people who are opposed to sexual promiscuity for reasons other than “keeping wimmenz down” (or indeed simply “da bible says so” (NT doesn’t particularly, only in passing)?
Sophia, who the hell said anything about sexual promiscuity?
And no, not really. Some people are concerned about unplanned pregnancy and STDs, and it’s undeniable that multiple partners puts one more at risk for STDs than a single partner does (though the idea that a single partner makes one immunity laughable). Those people, like me, promote birth control. So, did I ever think that there may actually be people who are opposed to sexual promiscuity and preventative health measures at the same time, who do so not out of hatred of women or fear of god (which can often end up going hand and hand)? Nah. Still don’t.
I might, Sophia, if one-tenth the energy devoted to preventing female promiscuity (aka “slut-shaming”) were spent on telling men to keep their legs closed. Let me know when that happens.
Felt compelled to comment, can see both sides of the argument (somewhat), but having gone through two full pregnancies and one miscarriage, i can tell you… a fertilized egg is as much a baby as you believe it to be. It’s too easy to dismiss something as not being there just because it justifies our decisions and makes our life easier and more convenient.
:) Thank you for this. You totally made my day. Hooray for bc, comprehensive sex ed, and “teh” right to CHOICE!
Ewa,
Just curious: do you see how your first and second statements entirely contradict each other?
<emIt’s too easy to dismiss something as not being there just because it justifies our decisions and makes our life easier and more convenient.
Anti-abortionists do it to women all the time.
Nick wins the thread!
A couple may try up to 3 months to get pregnant (ask any doctor). And not every egg reaches its maturity. That makes me believe that most of the times a natural cause is what stops a conception rather than a pill. However teenagers are becoming parents. So, I say THE real healthy birth control must be focused on prevention rather than anticonception. Does a pill kill? Maybe yes, maybe not. But that should be a decision of the parents and no one else.
… And… Cara, when you tag them as “assholes”… makes me think: what’s the difference between you calling them “assholes” and them calling you “baby killer”?
It just do not make sense
:(
Honestly, Clon, I couldn’t care less if they call me a baby-killer. If that bothered me, I proably would have melted into a hysterical heap and shut down this blog by now. In any case, I’d say the equivalent of them calling me a baby-killer would be for me to call them women-haters. Or in cases where abortion is outlawed, woman-killer. Which I do.
In any case, I don’t make the call about “killing” anyone, fetus, baby or adult. Anti-choice policies do indeed force women into a certain decision with no safe alternative. My supporting abortion rights isn’t forcing women to have abortions. Anti-choicers, when their policies win and go into effect, do force women to give birth.
I think these people should take a fertilized egg and start changing its diapers and breastfeeding it and get an idea how much like a baby it really is.
But you know what this reminds me of? There’s this series called Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. She’s a nurse and later doctor who time travels to be with her 1700s Scottish warrior soulmate. It’s must better than it sounds, really. ANYWAY, one day she puts his ejaculate under a microscope and shows him his sperm, and after that, he’s worried about coming because he’s killing those little creatures he sees swimming around. I may be hazy on the details and maybe some Outlander series fan can clarify, but it’s what this reminds me of.
All thumbs up!! (BTW, we have two. A Dutch female comedian once said, if I come across two Lesbians holding hands, and I do this — holding up two thumbs — I am afraid they’re going to sit on them.)
Anyway, change has to come from you guys: the women. I’ll support it, whereever I can.
Yeah, I know, my name makes you think I’m a girl. But, no, I’m not — over here René is a man’s name (‘Allo,’Allo), and Renée is a woman’s.
WOW! I have had 3 miscarriages and 1 full-term healthy pregnancy. I am currently on the mini-pill. I am married to the father of my daughter and we plan on trying for a second child in the near future. The pill gives us a chance to plan out to a very small degree when we have our next child. I recently graduated from college with my B.A. and he is still finishing his degree. I have never had an abortion, but my first two miscarriages could have ended in abortion if fate or God or my body had not ended those pregnancies first.
With that said, I am very thankful for the pill as a contraceptive. My husband is one of three children that were all born within 2 1/2 years. His mother spent about a month not being pregnant after her first, then again after her second… why? Because her husband didn’t give a shit about her and forced her into fulfilling his right as a husband to her body within 2-3 weeks after delivering her children vaginally. She almost died giving birth the third time, so her doctor, being a military doctor and wise to the situation, consulted her alone and gave her the option of getting her tubes tied…which she took with gratitude. I still have the urge to kick the man in his groin every time I see him. My husband, being nothing like this man, waited more than patiently for me to want to have sex again… and even then he waited until the doctor said it was okay and I had been on the pill long enough. For us, in a marriage, the pill allows us to space out our children while continuing to enjoying each other and the intimacy that is so important to marriage.
I’d also like to add that we are Catholic and that my 3rd miscarriage and my current daughter are a result of “natural family planning.” I am a very meticulous, precise person, very organized… but none of that prevented my somewhat erratic menstruation from helping me conceive a child.
I am well past the age of conceiving, thank god for that, but I was on the pill for over 30 years, so I wonder how many potential babies I have killed, and don’t care. If I had wanted to have a child I would have, I never did and don’t regret it for a minute. There are too many unwanted, abused, children in the world as it is. I thank god the laws still allow us to have a choice in what we do with our own bodies. The pro lifers need to find another hobby.
Cells in division “5-9 day old baby?!” Ok I am currently pregnant 25 weeks thank you and I am not buying that load of crap. Cells in division also known as cancer. No heart beat, no nervous system. We treat that very different don’t we. I think there should be an extremest group out there who believes cancer is our genes way of trying to evolve….SAVE THE CANCER! 1 out of 4 fertilized eggs become your baby the other…what do they extremest want an answer for that? How about God killed them. Maybe they should take their protest up with him. Come on people who are that extreme are just looking for something to be extreme in. If it wasn’t this it would be something else.
I just wanted to add my 2 sense too.
I also have 2 beautiful children and recently had one miscarriage. I took my miscarriage hard, it wasn’t easy. That being said, I still believe that it is a womans right to choose. It’s her choice to say I’m not ready for a child or another child.
I applaud those women who chose not to have them. They choose that because they know themselves well enough to know that they aren’t ready to care for someone other than themselves.
If they aren’t ready for that then the child is much better off.
A baby is one you can hear their heartbeat and feel.
Just my opinion.
Yeah, cos all abortions are giggling teenagers who had an oopsie, or selfish bitches who never grew up.
Would you like to buy a clue?
What happens to the baby when its born because a woman forgot her pill or decided not go with the abortion? I think its so sad that we even have to question whether a life is worth our time or not. How would you feel knowing your parents didn’t want you alive? That you were a mistake they wanted to get rid of? All human life has value. No one here can judge whether they should keep their first one but get rid of their next one. It’s pathetic. As a woman, I am completely disgusted that this is even an issue. The term “pro-life” is seen as something laughable. Since when did being in support of life become ridiculous? People these days love to play God. If you believe in a “soul”, which I think everyone does…Then at what point does a fetus receive one? Some people think life starts when the heart beats or when all the organs are in place, or whatever else. How can we decide? We can’t. People show the utmost respect for someone who has passed away. We keep their ashes in the home, we leave flowers at the grave, and some people even pray for them. God forbid anyone should desecrate a body that is dead. Yet on the opposite end of it, we have no shame in destroying a body that has not yet been born.
How would you feel knowing your parents didn’t want you alive?
If I knew they didn’t want to have me and did anyway, I imagine that would be upsetting — and I’d be particularly upset that people I love were put in a situation where they were forced into such a serious situation they didn’t want. If they didn’t want me and my mother had wanted an abortion, I would have wanted her to have one. Why? Because I love her and wouldn’t want her to be as miserable as I would be with a child. And because I wouldn’t know the damn difference.
I know, being pro-choice is selfish, right?
If you believe in a “soul”, which I think everyone does…
Well you’re pretty ignorant then.
The term “pro-life” is seen as something laughable. Since when did being in support of life become ridiculous?
“Pro-life” is laughable because it advocates policies that are not in support of life, demonstrably so, and in some cases acknowledged to be so by their proponents. It’s a lie; that’s why it gets no respect.
If you believe in a “soul”, which I think everyone does…Then at what point does a fetus receive one?
Going by the Bible, it receives a soul when it takes its first breath.
{ 7 trackbacks }
Comments on this entry are closed.