I boggled at the pettiness and stupidity of the Until Abortion Ends campaign. It’s a collection of videos by people who have promised to give something up ‘until abortion ends’.
I have two problems with the whole premise.
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Abortion can never end, short of establishing a theocratic tyranny with no privacy and absolute control of the population. Even when abortion was illegal, abortions still happened in back alley clinics, and with far greater loss of life. And then, of course, it would be inexcusably immoral to end abortion for cases where the mother’s life was at risk. These people haven’t thought it through.
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The sacrifices the participants make are embarrassingly petty. Most promise to stop drinking soda pop until abortion ends; one swears off Taco Bell; others give up coffee. Yeah, like I’m going to be persuaded to take away women’s right to choose because Billy Joe Bob in Augusta, Georgia is pinin’ for a Coke, or Betty Rae in Provo, Utah has been deprived of her french fries for far too long.
This silly effort is never going to work. I suggest stepping it up a notch: everyone who doesn’t like abortion should threaten to hold their breath until they turn blue if women don’t stop needing abortions.
63 comments
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captainahags
16 December 2011 at 10:51 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
For some reason Brave Sir Robin comes to mind.
Brian
16 December 2011 at 10:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I hereby promise to stop picking my nose until abortion ends!
vexorian
16 December 2011 at 10:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I actually find it very hard to believe this is not a satire site. I mean really. Soda? Video Games? come on. It is not just a couple of the guys that are making these sacrifices, it seems like it is everyone…
captainahags
16 December 2011 at 10:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oooh ooh! Pick me!! I have an idea for a sacrifice these people could make! How about they give up 18 years of their lives and several hundred thousand dollars!
osmosis
16 December 2011 at 11:09 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I think they should show some real determination and give up BREATHING until abortion ends.
I like their page with “Too many of us have been lost to abortion.” — er, what? If you were lost to abortion, you were never one of “us”.
Rey Fox
16 December 2011 at 11:17 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Outta sight, outta mind.
'Tis Himself, OM
16 December 2011 at 11:20 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m giving up piracy on the high seas until Ray Comfort stops lying about evolution.
Caine, Fleur du Mal
16 December 2011 at 11:25 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Works for me, although I’d settle for them minding their own business.
DLC
16 December 2011 at 11:28 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Let them continue to hold their breath. . . right up until they fall over. What’re they going to do with women who miscarry ?
Who have a fertilized egg that doesn’t implant ?
Who’re non-believers ?
DLC
16 December 2011 at 11:29 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Oh, and Tis Himself @7 : Yar! ye can’t give up Piratin’ tis in yer blood!
Janey Q Doe
16 December 2011 at 11:31 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This reminds me of giving up brussels sprouts for Lent as a kid. The maturity level is about the same, too.
feralboy12
16 December 2011 at 11:35 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
That’s what dogma is for. Too much thinking makes them all sleepy.
bastionofsass
16 December 2011 at 11:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m giving up praying until god stops aborting so many babies. Now THAT’s a non-petty sacrifice if I say so myself. One I think that the UAErs might want to consider.
maleficvtwin
16 December 2011 at 11:39 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If this is their way of “protesting”, I’m all for it. It beats the hell out of blockading clinics, shooting doctors, and pamphleting cars with pictures of bloody fetuses.
No soda? Why Jim Bob, you are a MACHINE. Go suffer in silence.
Olletho
16 December 2011 at 11:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I really like till women stop NEEDING abortions. Although those of the inclination will read the subtleties bent entirely the wrong way.
They always do.
kamromdechu
16 December 2011 at 11:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Ohohoh! I got one!
They should promise to give up their favorite thing in the world: No more religion until abortion ends!
Wowbagger, Madman of Insleyfarne
16 December 2011 at 11:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Fucking idiots.
mephistopheles
16 December 2011 at 11:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If they are truly sincere, then they should attack the problem at its origins.
Give up sex until all abortion ends. Now who’se really serious?
dianne
17 December 2011 at 12:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’d like to see them offering to give up some of their taxes to an initiative to massively fund research into ending spontaneous abortion and failure to implant. Only then will I believe that they have any real sincere belief in the zygote/embryo/fetus as an actual child. Until then, I’m going to have to assume it’s about controlling sexuality.
Tony Sidaway
17 December 2011 at 12:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
We should encourage this. Also praying.
Picketing clinics, intimidating women, lying about abortion, and killing doctors are all examples of actions we should discourage.
kenblakey
17 December 2011 at 12:27 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Jay Smooth has a good video on this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yeno9kiGRuI
We can all do our bit to help these Christians. As long as abortion is legal it’s not just good for women to have reproductive freedom and appropriate access to medical support… but it is also helping a bunch of Christians improve their diets and work on their time wasting.
zenoferox
17 December 2011 at 12:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If they were really serious they would set their sights on God the abortionist, who kills up to half of the fertilized eggs in the womb.
kristinc, ~delicate snowflake~
17 December 2011 at 1:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
kenblakey: “They’re just taking another crack at their New Year’s resolution and calling it a protest.” Bwahaha. Jay Smooth is possibly the closest to perfection that humanity can offer.
crowepps
17 December 2011 at 1:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yeah, right, because when some woman somewhere has to decide what to do about an unwanted pregnancy, the focus of her attention ought to be the trauma her decision might cause to some shallow moralist who has made the sacrifice of gaving up Pepsi or smoking.
Makes it obvious that the motivation behind the ProLife movement is at base puffing oneself up in self-importance at being part of the Nobel Cause, doesn’t it? No wonder it’s so popular down South, they have a lot of practice at Nobel Causes where the price of their principle will be paid by someone else.
kreativekaos
17 December 2011 at 1:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Absolutely,… (natural, spontaneous)abortion will never end, and elective abortion probably will not as well, certainly not if it’s protecting the life of the mother (in my opinion, in this case it would be monstrous otherwise,…although there are some Right-Wing nuts who have been favoring even THAT !)
What they’re likely *really* getting at is the roll-back Roe v. Wade…. rolling back the federal court decision, getting a political/legislative/judicial ‘foot in the door’.
naturalcynic
17 December 2011 at 1:42 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m giving up caviar. Well, only beluga.
And that Chateau Lafitte ’67 that I don’t have in the basement.
zb24601
17 December 2011 at 1:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If they want to end abortion, maybe they could ask their god to prevent pregnancy in women who don’t want to be pregnant, and prevent pregnancy in women who would not be able to handle a pregnancy for medical reasons, and not allow extreme defects in the fetus, etc. And while they are at it, ask that there be no pregnancies from rape or incest. Better yet, ask that there be no rape or incest.
Maybe, until there are no more abortions, they could give up tithing and use that money to help provide sex education and contraception to people who have trouble getting access to those things. That might actually get the number of abortions needed to be reduced.
raven
17 December 2011 at 2:14 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Already this is happening again. Abortions have become hard to get for poor women due to geographic, financial, and red tape rules.
The difference this time is effective “abortion pills”. Reports are there is now an underground market for these.
Middle class and rich women have no such problems. They can get on a plane and fly anywhere or drive to the next state.
Mattmon
17 December 2011 at 2:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Interesting that there are no stories of giving up sex. Sex is the cause of abortions after all.
npinkerton
17 December 2011 at 2:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I give up unprotected sex until abortion ends
I give up failed contraception until abortion ends
I give up incest until abortion ends
I give up rape until abortion ends
I give up poverty until abortion ends
I give up religion until abortion ends.
npinkerton
17 December 2011 at 2:31 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
rather than “I give up religion until abortion ends,” I should have said:
“I give up abstinence-only-education until abortion ends.”
give up religion even after abortion ends.
dartigen...
17 December 2011 at 3:04 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, if nothing else it seems like a really good way to manipulate people into eating a healthier diet.
Most people, when they try to get off the junk food and eat healthy, have a really hard time keeping motivated and sticking to it. So they have to find motivation.
It sounds like these guys are pretty motivated.
Hell, maybe someone could co-opt this into a weight loss movement. Losing weight to stop abortion. Maybe they could all do X number of push-ups or sit-ups each day until abortion ends. Or run for X minutes or walk X miles.
(Well, I have heard that being overweight or obese can actually increase a woman’s chance of miscarriage, so…I guess it sort of stops some not-really abortions?
I don’t put miscarriage in the same category as abortion; miscarriage is something that a woman has no control over, whereas abortion is a conscious decision to terminate a pregnancy. Sort of like the difference between something spontaneously igniting and deliberately setting something on fire.)
Or follow @27′s suggestion – donate and campaign for comprehensive sexual education and better availability of contraception and sterilization procedures so that there aren’t so many women that need abortions. If they’re serious about ending abortion then that’s really the only way to go about it.
(Although until we have a better understanding of what causes gestational conditions and what causes birth defects – and how to prevent them – then abortions will still happen, just not as often.)
sebloom
17 December 2011 at 5:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“Even when abortion was illegal, abortions still happened in back alley clinics, and with far greater loss of life.”
If one had money back then one could get a sympathetic doctor to help. The back alleys were for the poor (of which there are many more now).
The conclusion is obvious. They should give up accumulating money until abortion is ended. Instead they should give all their money to the poor and go live in convents and monestaries in silence, seclusion, and holy contemplation.
Oh, wait. They don’t really give shit about living human beings…just fetuses.
jean-denismuys
17 December 2011 at 6:29 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I submitted this to that campaign: “I will give up goign to church and believing in God until abortion ends”. I somehow suspect my submission will not pass moderation…
zachariahwasson
17 December 2011 at 7:45 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I will take into my home and provide complete care for a minimum of 4 foster children whom nobody wants until abortion ends.
a3kr0n
17 December 2011 at 8:01 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I agree with vexorian #3, It’s hard to believe this isn’t a satire site.
I sent them a message…
julietdefarge
17 December 2011 at 8:20 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Puh-leeze let them march with a UAE banner, I’d like them to experience a little Muslim bashing.
peterh
17 December 2011 at 8:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“Too much thinking makes them all sleepy.”
I submit that too much thinking makes them afraid – those who are capable of quasi-thought, at least. All such idiocy and theocratic maundering seems to boil down to a deep fear of reality.
The Ys
17 December 2011 at 9:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Not sure if I missed it, but I don’t think any of them claimed they’d help out low income families with child care, bill payments, health care, or buying food.
Not terribly helpful, are they?
The Ys
17 December 2011 at 9:12 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
^^ That.
And a very deep-seated fear of women.
Sastra
17 December 2011 at 10:11 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I suspect the real target for their plan isn’t you or other pro-choice advocates: it’s God. They’re not protesting for political change. They’re pleading for divine intervention.
This may be coming out of the same mindset used for Lent — or for those fervent private prayers which bargain with God about giving up candy forever and ever if God will just make sure Buddy-the-puppy-who-ran-in-front-of-a-car doesn’t die. If God sees how much they sacrifice, He will “relent” and intervene in the unhappy state of affairs down here.
How? They’ve got a cornucopia of fantasy scenarios to choose from, ranging from God smiting the abortionists to God changing the hearts of congressmen. The details of the method aren’t important. Neither, apparently, is the little detail about God having to be paid in pain and suffering to give less pain and suffering in exchange.
The whole situation doesn’t have to make deep sense: it only has to superficially resemble some vaguely similar transaction between authority and supplicant here on earth. Think abusive parent.
Gregory Greenwood
17 December 2011 at 11:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sadly, you have just described the fundie vision of utopia.
And people wonder why we say the seperation of church and state is so important…
EvoMonkey
17 December 2011 at 11:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This is ridiculous. Is this site some kind of grand poe.
monkboon
17 December 2011 at 11:56 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ll give up sex with 21 year old supermodels until Christianity ends. Ehh, it’s worth a shot.
EvoMonkey
17 December 2011 at 11:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I just saw the subtitle below the header of this web site – “Until Abortion Ends: a Hero Initiative”. They just cheapened the word “hero” to new low.
kemist
17 December 2011 at 12:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Somehow I’m remembering that catholic’s rant we go this week about pathetic atheists were to complain about their rights being infringed, and being compared with courageous xians martyrs…
And what I’m forced to conclude is that the quality of xian martyrs has degraded somewhat in the US.
Imagine *gasp* having to let go of soda. The horror, the horror…
Seriously, millions of dieters will do exactly that in about 2 weeks. As well as giving up their precious, sweet deserts.
And giving up video games ?
*Faints*
So this is what it takes to be a “spiritual warrior”. Consider me underwhelmed.
Markita Lynda, happy Winter Solstice, everyone!
17 December 2011 at 12:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, shit! The only reasonable sacrifice is, “Until they get rid of abortion, I’m having myself sterilized so as not to cause any.” Can anyone who visits anti-abortion forums please promote that?
shouldbeworking
17 December 2011 at 12:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I could offer to give up marking exams, lab write ups and so on. Would that help?
markmckee
17 December 2011 at 1:48 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I agree with you contention that even when it was illegal abortions still occurred. Then you point out that those abortions were back alley abortions where people died. Although that is true to a point, that really only applied to poor people abortions, or to rich people who were afraid to let others know what they were about to do.
But for nearly all the well off, when abortions were illegal in their state they simply flew to a state where they were legal. And if abortions are made illegal nationwide, those people will just fly to Europe.
I think it’s essential when discussing abortion that we make this other mechanism to get abortions a part of the conversation because there is a LOT of hypocrisy in one of our political parties right now on this issue. One of our political parties is “of the rich, for the rich and by the rich” but they know there are not enough rich to win elections so they have become excellent at demagogimg certain issues. And those that control that political party know full well that any law that bans abortion will only add an expense to their abortions, it won’t stop them.
(Tho, I must say that that political party needs the abortion issue so much in order to win elections, that I doubt it will even be made illegal everywhere, cuz then they couldn’t demagogue it, but that’s a different argument.
So when we point out the back alley abortions, we should also mention what the privileged would do if abortion were made illegal. Just slip it into the conversation.
sc_e701d126bc35ed2f068041089b895f9d
17 December 2011 at 2:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
These are the same people who celebrate “Lent”, a time during which a man was supposed to have survived 40 days and nights in a desert on nothing but faith alone, by giving up such crucial things as chocolate and swearing, sacrifices which clearly induce the same hardship the desert wanderer would have felt, showing their similar struggle against “Satan”, who tempts them with M&Ms and dirty words in their head, just like “Demigod J” was tempted by “Satan” in the desert. You just can’t make this stuff up. Oh, wait, apparently you can. SO, how much surprise is it that they think they can overcome a woman’s right to make choices about her own body by promising to stop biggy-sizing their fast food meals or vowing to only drink alcohol every other day? I mean, you don’t actually expect them to give up anything equivalent to a woman giving up nine months of her life, possibly putting her safety at risk, and possibly having a child she has to care for at least 18-20 years because the law tells her her body is not her own, do you? That’s too hard (unless they’re trying to force someone else to do it.) When I start seeing every anti-woman anti-choicer adopting every single child placed in adoption homes, foster care,special needs, homeless, starving or abused (INCLUDING the lgbt and trans ones) by parents who couldn’t or wouldn’t care for the children they only had because it was “against god’s will”, then and only then will I at least acknowledge their commitment is serious, although nothing they do will convince me I should get to vote on whether I get to make a woman have a baby or not. Geez. Oh, and I’m going to stop burping in public until all these people go away…not that I ever burp in public (gross) but I’m going to make an even more determined effort not too than before. yeah, I’m that serious.
skybluskyblue
17 December 2011 at 2:16 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
“…[P]eople who have promised to give something up ‘until abortion ends’” may want to *give up* “abstinence education” to really decrease abortions.
Midnight Rambler
17 December 2011 at 2:19 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It’s pretty hard to believe this isn’t a satire site (“I’m giving up eating between meals on weekdays! I’m giving up Bailey’s!”), but there is a Facebook page as well that had almost entirely posts from the admin until a couple of days ago, so it sounds like they’re serious.
Kel
17 December 2011 at 7:22 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m still waiting for the pragmatic moralist movement – people who are ideologically driven with the delight of moral superiority but actually want to achieve their ends.
It’ll be an interesting day when pro-life groups start to strongly push for better sex education and women’s education / equality. But pointless symbolism, I suppose, has its place too. If you want to feel superior while doing nothing in real terms, then giving up coke is probably a very rational action. That way you can sustain the feeling of moral superiority irrespective of actual abortion rates, and have the added bonus of reducing the risk of pancreatic cancer that comes from avoiding sugary softdrinks* in the process.
*Unless, of course, you drink diet coke, in which case you have to avoid the occasional email scaremongering about artificial sweetener alongside that feeling of moral superiority.
Ms. Daisy Cutter
17 December 2011 at 7:36 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yes, they have.
Dirty, dirty sluts dying because they did the dirtydance and they didn’t want to be punished for it with a kid for 18 years? That’s not a bug to them. That’s a feature.
Also, I didn’t know it was “a thing.” I saw this the other day and went “Buh?”
Duth Olec
17 December 2011 at 7:44 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This just adds more reasons to keep abortion around: these people will live healthier!
I vow to stop blowing up planets with my death ray until abortion ends!
WMDKitty
17 December 2011 at 10:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@zachariahwasson (#35)
I love you for that comment. If only more people would, you know, foster and adopt…
antonioyang
17 December 2011 at 11:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Better idea: Self-immolation.
It’s a win-tin for both sides: The anti-abortionists get to perform a protest act that will get plenty of attention, while we get a lovely bonfire for barbecues :)
rivertam
18 December 2011 at 2:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I promise not to have back alley abortions until abortion “ends”. Oh wait… I’m Canadian. LOLOLOLOLOL
John Phillips, FCD
18 December 2011 at 2:40 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
antonioyang, not only that, we atheists can barbecue the babies that aren’t aborted, a win win situation.
Hurin, Nattering Nabob of Negativism
18 December 2011 at 11:34 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Sastra
I think you are right, but I’m not sure if this explanation makes this “protest” seem more or less puerile. On the one hand, they aren’t trying to impress me with their discipline. On the other hand they seem to think that a God who is too callous to stop all of these fetuses (“children”) from being aborted (“murdered”) is going to be deeply moved by their refusal to eat cheezy poofs.
Infantile narcissism FTL!
Hurin, Nattering Nabob of Negativism
18 December 2011 at 11:38 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I just clicked on the link, and actually the full title of the web page is:
Facepalm.
celeste
19 December 2011 at 6:43 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I clicked on the link and immediately Syndrome’s voice popped into my head, “Lame, lame, lame, lame, LAME!”
raison
22 December 2011 at 7:33 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
From the main page of the website:
“Its time to share our voices with the voiceless..”
Basic grammar fail.