It’s from Jill Stanek, so of course it’s twisted. She’s upset that people might consider Jimmy Connors, ex-tennis champ, to be a bit of a sleazebag for writing an autobiography that shames ex-girlfriend Chris Everett for getting an abortion. It seems to me that it was Everett’s private decision, and that Connors needs some greater ethical awareness, but Stanek instead wants to shame Everett for an abortion 30 years ago. So she has a poll, apparently expecting that a majority would agree with her idea that outing people who got abortions is acceptable.
So far, it’s not going her way, despite her misleading phrasing that abortion is “killing a child”.
Is it acceptable to out the mother or father of one’s aborted child?
No 50.43%
Yes 49.57%
I wonder if she would consider it legit for a third party to reveal any medical procedure received by a woman?
1. eek.
2. It’s spelled “weird”. e before i in this case.
Only 131 votes as of right now. That poll is going to be pharyngulated to the moon and back.
Unfortunately, the correct answer is “Why the fuck is it anyone’s business but hers?”
Voted no. It’s been 38 years since I had my abortion, and it’s never once entered my mind to mention, in any way, who the other half of that contraceptive failure happened to be. Can’t see why it’s anyone else’s business.
PZ, either you or I have misunderstood the wording of this poll. Surely the answer we would prefer to see out of those two is ‘yes – outing people that have had an abortion should be taboo’. In which case, it actually is going her way.
The question has been reworded to: “Is it OK to out the mother or father of one’s aborted child?”
And next to it, there’s another poll:
Of course we won’t. We may well see states where women die from illegal back-alley abortions, though.
Oh. Never mind, I see the problem: your wording of the poll is different to that of the poll itself.
Holms:
You need to visit the link. The ‘taboo’ business is Stanek’s wording, the wording of the actual poll is “Is it acceptable to out the mother or father of one’s aborted child?”
Did they change the wording? Because right now it says
Is it acceptable to out the mother or father of one’s aborted child?
not
Should outing the other parent of a child killed by abortion be taboo?
Oooh, I see what they did. Right above the poll it says
Is it acceptable to out the mother or father of one’s aborted child?
And in the poll itself, it says
Should outing the other parent of a child killed by abortion be taboo?
That’s either an indication of dishonesty or stupidity. Possibly both.
Up to 79.5% NO response. I predict the poll will disappear any…time…now….
Only 20% yes as of my vote a second ago
Also, if you clear your cookies each time you can just keep on voting:-)
It seems something like an Underground Railroad might be in order….
No 83.33% (340 votes)
Yes 16.67% (68 votes)
Total Votes: 408
Azkyroth:
What makes you think such a thing isn’t (and has been) going on? Jane* is far from dead, and many of us are part of an informal network which helps women as much as possible, with money, transportation and places to stay. However, given how many states are now down to a single clinic (or none), and those down to one clinic are subject to such harsh restrictions, there are limits to what any collective can do.
*For those too young to remember: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Collective
Irony. One of her commenting is rules is
<sarcastic>I dunno. Does it mean we get to ruin the lives and/or offer violence against the mother and/or father if they’re outed?</sarcastic>
Call me cynical, but that’s how I read that poll.
Oh, but don’t get me wrong. I’m sure they positively deplore violence and would never endorse the idea of someone doing these things. Only that they would approve of the outcome of “baby killers” getting their just rewards.
Half way back from the moon already…
Just voted, and the results…. 465 NO, 69 yes
Faranglu8ted!!!!
Pretty soon all of our medical records will be public information. As much as I feel for Chris Everett, she is nothing special.
It’s Evert, not Everett. One of the greatest tennis players of all time.
lockout:
This wasn’t a matter of medical records being made public. It was a matter of an obnoxious person deciding to publish a private matter in a twisted attempt to punish her.
Yes, you feel for her enough to get her name wrong. Your empathy is just oozing out all over. As for her being “nothing special”, she’s a woman with the right to autonomy and privacy in regard to private medical decisions, just like the rest of us “nothing special” women.
Gee, decide if you want your incontenence/prostate problems, which will happen, to how public. Then that is where you ethically draw the line. Personally, none of anybody’s business.
I don’t mean to be argumentative, but if you read the blog-post, it is spelled ‘Everett’. And high accomplishment does not come with privacy privilege, regardless of spelling.
That would be a gross violation of all medical professional ethics.
Not to mention HIPAA. Funny how some folks don’t keep up with reality.
That. Damn straight.
I was just showing my little guy one of her matches (v. Navratilova, natch), oddly enough. The French open being on, we got to talking about players can handle clay, grass, hardcourt. Evert naturally came to mind. We were just admiring some of her smashes together. He’s eight. He likes those. And damn, but hers are fun to watch. The anticipation. Here it comes. You want to say to her opponent: you put the ball where? That was a bad idea. You imagine absolute glee, as she approaches… There will be blood.
Connors… I never had much of an opinion on Connors. I’d heard good things about his game, kinda vaguely. Somehow, I seem to have mostly missed his career.
This other thing, it’s not at all impressing me.
So I think I’d put it that way to Stanek: Evert is and was awesome. Shame? As if. There is no earthly reason to think any the less of her for this.
Connors is another matter. Dink move, pal.
You know, even if all of our medical records were made public tomorrow (and I see no reason to believe this would be the case), she would still be special by virtue of having been outed before anyone else was and having had such done in a way that was likely to gather special attention.
Also, I fail to see what point you are trying to make. That we shouldn’t care if women’s medical information is published, specifically medical information that’s likely to make her the target of threats and possibly violence? After all, this isn’t like if someone leaked the fact that I went to the doctor over an ingrown toenail; people get murdered over abortion. So, the message we are supposed to take away from all of this is . . . what?
@#28: feh
At the rate the pharyngulation is going, the “No”‘s will be in single digits soon.
oh the comments there. blah blah blah abortion is murder blah blah blah. why is it never the other way around? i say if its illegal for the mother to harm the fetus, it must also be illegal for the fetus to harm the mother. henceforth, babies shall be held legally liable for maternal injury or even death. they will literally be taken to court, put on trial, fined, and imprisoned, just like women would be. fair is fucking fair.
Hey! Without shaming others, how’s a person to construct/maintain their superiority complex? You expect people to overcome their insecurities through introspection and effort? Sheesh,.Y’all are just plain inconsiderate.
Pardon my mistake AJ Milne: My ‘feh’ was directed at #21 lockout. Apologies.
Not being aware of it, obviously…?
Ding ding ding! Single digit on “yes” now: 7%. Good job, you wicked pharyngulers!
Oh, it’s simpler than that. If you can tell someone to get the fuck out of your living room, you can tell someone to get the fuck out of your uterus. And you can have the appropriate specialist escort them off the premises if they don’t obey. And it’s not your problem if they have nowhere else to go. Even if you assume a fetus is equivalent to a born person, which, as noted elsewhere, there are overwhelming arguments not to.
Caine, Fleur du mal wrote:
Jill Stanek got it wrong first, and then PZ copied that error. In this case, I don’t think you can really fault lockout for getting her name wrong (although it doesn’t change that the rest of the comment lockout posted is extremely wrong). Jill, on the other hand… Plenty of blame and fault available to be assigned to her.
Latest figures :
*****
Thank you for voting!
No 93.62% (1,277 votes)
Yes 6.38% (87 votes)
Total Votes: 1,364
*****
Pharyngulated.
Interesting~ish maybe :
(Emphasis original.)
I kinda agree with most – though not all (eg. no blasphemy? Fuck off! Swearing banned? Fuck that!) – of those. Her blog not mine or anyone else’s of course and thus her home to set the rules. Same applies to PZ and FTB generally natch.
@28. AJ Milne :
Fuck yeah! Seconded by me.
Left a couple of fun posts there. I’ll copy them here because I have my doubts about their longevity there:
I’m not exactly sure if that question is appropriate. I mean can someone be “outed” for having their appendix removed? Of course as a medical privacy issue this should be confidential between the doctor and the woman, but surely it would be better if people just treated it as something that shouldn’t really matter?
=8)-DX,
Think about the same question, but concerning someone’s sexual orientation.
For both things: sure, it should not matter, but it does. It is something personal, sharing information of which can have negative consequences due to people’s bigotry, and the person should decide for themselves whether they are going to share or not.
@39
I guess medical records don’t count as personal information.
=8)-DX:
Well, even if society had progressed to the point where the response to “she’s had an abortion” was universally, “OK, and…?”, and even if there was no issue of medical confidentiality, I still say he shouldn’t have written this without Everett’s permission for the very simple reason that it’s bad manners. I mean, all he had to do was replace Everett’s name with ‘an ex-girlfriend’, or something similar, and he could still have written his side of it no problem without impacting on her private life or making part of her private life public.
Evert was the precursor to the model of playing that just about every WTA player uses nowadays. Power-baseliner. Along with Martina and Steffi*, she’s usually in the conversation for the greatest female tennis player of all time, given her achievements. She’s a conservative Republican, which makes her abortion decision another example of IOKIYAR hypocrisy, but she isn’t preachy about her views, she showed tremendous support to Martina Navratilova when she was outed in the 80’s. But all that aside, it’s just real sleazy for Connors to bring up the topic in his book. No woman deserves that. By most accounts (especially Agassi’s biography) Connors has always been a self-centered asshole.
*Though Martina and several other legends claim that Monica Seles was the most dominant player ever, and had she not been stabbed, would have probably left them all in the dust.
Feh, Jill Stanek. I have a special place in my awful persons list for her ever since the day she and her commenters argued that the late term D&X of a dead fetus shouldn’t be allowed because it was “disrespectful” of the dead baybee. Never mind the medical hazard to the mother.
“No” now at 95.89% :) hahaha