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The Anti-Choice Movement: "Not Intended to Be Factual"
Last week, during the high-drama of the budget crisis and impending shutdown of the federal government, Senator John Kyl took to the floor of the Senate to pillory Planned Parenthood. He had no real evidence with which to do so, so like any good soldier in the ideological war on women, he just made something up, by falsely claiming that abortion is “well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.”
When confronted by journalists with the actual fact that over 90 percent of the services provided by Planned Parenthood clinics throughout the country are comprised of preventive health care services such as breast and cervical cancer screenings, testing and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, and the provision of contraceptive supplies, Kyl's office replied as follows:
The Senator's statement on the floor of the Senate was "not intended to be factual."
I am sure Kyl's office did not intend it as such but this is perhaps the most apt and revealing description of the anti-choice movement ever offered by one of its members.
It is a movement not intended to be factual.
In fact, it is based on a foundation of lies so deep I'd recommend regulation by the Mine Safety and Health Administration if I thought they did their job regulating coal mines effectively in the first place.
Here are just a handful of the many and most pervasive lies spread by the anti-choice movement, which can be disputed by facts, yet based on which, increasingly, actual laws and policies are in force or being created and actual women's lives being profoundly affected.
Lie #1: Federal funding of abortion care is widespread. This is perhaps the most pervasive current lie out there. Because of the 40-year old Hyde Amendment, federal support to low-income women facing unintended and untenable pregnancies is non-existent except in extraordinary circumstances. The Hyde Amendment forbids the use of federal funds for abortion care except in cases of rape, incest, and threats to the life of the mother. The obstacles to gaining access to federal funds are so large that even under the exceptions, there is virtually no federal funding for abortion care in the United States. In 2006, a total of 191 abortions were supported by federal funds in the United States when accounting for all exceptions of the Hyde Amendment. This is out of a total of some 1.2 million abortions each year paid for privately.
Lie #2: Fetuses feel pain. Laws in various states, such as one recently signed in Kansas, seek to limit abortions before viability on the basis of the argument that "fetuses feel pain." These bills are based on lies because medical experts in both the United States and United Kingdom agree there is no evidence whatsoever that fetuses feel pain.
Lie #3: Pregnancy begins at fertilization. The medical definition of pregnancy involves the successful implantation of a fertilized egg into the uterus. A fertilized egg that has not implanted or fails to implant can not effectively be detected and there is no pregnancy unless and until said egg implants successfully in the uterus.
Lie #4: Abortion causes, variously, breast cancer, depression, suicide, and miscarriages. These are the "we-care-about-women" tactics of the anti-choice movement, none of which are based on fact and belie the fact that they don't care about women at all, except in their desire to control them. There is no proven link between abortion and breast cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, which, forgive me, is a more valid source on these issues than Family Research Council, Susan B. Anthony List and LifeSite News, says the following:
In February 2003, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) convened a workshop of over 100 of the world’s leading experts who study pregnancy and breast cancer risk. Workshop participants reviewed existing population-based, clinical, and animal studies on the relationship between pregnancy and breast cancer risk, including studies of induced and spontaneous abortions. They concluded that having an abortion or miscarriage does not increase a woman’s subsequent risk of developing breast cancer. A summary of their findings, titled Summary Report: Early Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer Workshop, can be found at http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/ere-workshop-report.
A study published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine and found no links between abortion and mental health problems with abortion as a causal factor. and depression or suicide, or between early termination of pregnancy and higher risk of miscarriage.
Despite the fact that medical science utterly refutes these claims, South Dakota passed a law mandating that women thinking of terminating an untenable pregnancy be counseled at so-called crisis pregnancy centers which repeat, over and over, these lies.
Lie #5: Planned Parenthood uses federal funds to provide abortions. Untrue. Abortions performed at Planned Parenthood clinics as well as at other clinics in this country are paid variously with the client's own funds, funds raised by the clinics themselves, and/or with funds raised by organizations such as the New York Abortion Fund or the D.C. Abortion Fund to help cover costs for low-income women facing untenable pregnancies but unable to perform an abortion.
Lie #6: Planned Parenthood "targets" African American women for abortion and a disproportionate number of clinics are located in African American communities. This is patently false. Fact: Fewer than one in ten clinics providing abortion are located in African American communities or those that are predominantly black. The facts are that more clinics are needed in low-income and minority communities because all members of those communities--women, men, and children--struggle for access to health care of all kinds. African American women in particular urgently need more access to reproductive and sexual health care because they suffer and die at higher rates from treatable conditions.
Again, these are only a few samples of the "not-intended-as-factual" contrived reality of the anti-choice movement. Others include but are not limited to the contention that abstinence-only-until marriage programs work (not true), that abortion is the root cause of the social security problem, that emergency contraception, which prevents a pregnancy in the first place, causes abortion.
It's past time for the media and the public to stop taking these people seriously.
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43 Comments so far
Show AllWhen you have faith, you don't need truth. Or facts. Or science, or...
Hey AI. How have you been?
It's tricky getting hold of information on Fatima in 1917, but there are a lot of similar reports from an event attended by 7000 people at Knock in October 2009, including this from a doctor who had noticed a rise in the number of people complaining of affected vision, later diagnosed as retinal damage :
"If you stare at the sun for long enough you're going to get some visual disturbances. Not only will you get reduced vision but also a condition called metamorphopsia," he said, adding that this could explain such visual alterations.
He said that reports of people seeing colours dancing in front of the sun could also be explained by the condition, describing it as "sort of a cheap trick".
(Dr Eamonn O'Donoghue, a consultant ophthalmologist surgeon based at University Hospital, Galway)
[Sorry about the last bit - that was O'Donoghue, not me]
And :
"I was told that there were three or four ladies living in Lourdes who could guarantee the facts as stated by little Clementine. I looked up those ladies. The first said No, she could not vouch for anything. She had seen nothing. I had better consult somebody else. The next answered in the same way, and nowhere was I able to find any corroboration of the girl's story. Yet the little girl did not look like a liar, and I believe that she was fully convinced of the miraculous nature of her cure. It is the facts themselves which lie."
(Zola, Prelude to the novel "Lourdes", though possibly not about the case you mention)
So some saw miracles and others didn't, which illustrates your point which applies equally to both sides - all that really seems to matter are peoples' prejudices and preconceptions. People go with the anecdotes that suit them. Looks like you and I are no less guilty of that than anyone else. (You see? I knew we'd agree on something eventually...)
Point of order, though. No one can hate something they don't believe exists.
See you round.
I know an Atheist that explained this enigma at Lourdes in an interesting way. When walked up upon there are many crutches of people that claim to be able to walk again and leave their crutches. But there are no artificial limbs. What does that show? Nobody is growing back limbs. This suggests that the healings are all psychosomatic. Miracle claims are just a way for ignorant folks to explain something supernaturally that they don't have the knowledge to explain scientifically. The fact that the faithful are so gullible coincides with their uncritical consumption of the lies of the people they follow, especially the anti-choice movement.
"Not intended to be factual" literally means that he was "intending to mislead." It's the exact same meaning.
The insanity of U.S. politics is getting more and more surreal. Next thing you know, when called out on a lie, Senators will just say, "Oh that? That was just a lie." And everyone will just shrug.
Maybe we need to condem condoms, which would earn us a commendation as an anti-condom-nation. It could be presented at a press conference at Viagra Falls, N.Y.
condomdreams.org? Brings a whole new meaning to the tag line at the top of the page.
My apologies. I never meant to interrupt curtis...
[Sorry again. Once I get started it's just ...aargh, dammit...]
Good post.
Facts?
The "anti-choice" zealots are outraged and appalled by the very idea of considering human reproduction rationally and dispassionately, i.e. as a civil liberties issue.
True Believers in fetus-fetishizing, compulsory childbirth, and the joyful duty of uninhibited breeding for its own sake are wrathfully offended by the permissive attitude that "reproductive rights" are necessary, ethical, and desirable-- and especially that the decision to carry a pregnancy to term is an autonomous decision solely at the discretion of the pregnant woman.
This high dudgeon is all the more ratcheted-up and sustained when these beliefs are rooted in the conviction that they accord with the will and desire of a phantom, problematic Creator and Supreme Micro-Manager of the Universe.
Thus, the secular humanitarian ideal that giving birth ought to be an informed, intelligent choice, and conversely, that freely declining in good conscience to give birth is both moral and socially desirable, is to religious anti-choicers a blasphemous perversion of "the natural order of things".
As with all religious and mystical fundamentalism, "facts" and what for the sake of this point might be called "objective truth" is subordinate to revealed truth, not the other way around.
That's one reason why factual knowledge and logical understanding is so readily flung down and danced upon by anti-choicers.
As if all that isn't bad enough, another layer of mendacity and hypocrisy is imposed by political leaders who may or may not sincerely buy into the fundamentalism, but in any case have a strong interest in practicing a cynical demagoguery that uses and manipulates the issue to gain political power and advantage.
Both the genuine ideological/religious zealots and the cynics believe that the end justifies the means. The "end", alas! revolves around the goal of coercing economically-disadvantaged women to straddle the horns of a cruel dilemma: involuntary abstinence or childbirth, consequences be damned.
And since the anti-choice crowd is notoriously indifferent to the fate of those sacred fetuses born into economic and psychological disadvantage, the consequences are damning indeed.
Facts? They don't need no stinkin' facts! As with all sociopolitical schemes to extert unilateral control and force upon the relatively powerless and disadvantaged, the "facts" are created and shaped to fit around the predetermined and pre-eminent policy.
Good post! Thank you.
"Both the genuine ideological/religious zealots and the cynics believe that the end justifies the means"
Most of these people call themselves Christians. I wonder how many of their ministers believe that the end justifies the means. That is, except for the Elmer Gantry's among them.
Here's a long sordid list of real life Elmer Gantrys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_evangelist_scandals
RE: Most of these people call themselves Christians.
Christianity has a long and welcoming relationship to hypocrisy: from the time that a religion of the oppressed became a religion of the oppressors, that is, when Constantine converted to Christianity (312 c.e.), therefore making Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. 1700 years is a lot time to hone your skills of cognitive dissonance and cynicism..
The current media news generators can ONLY take these people seriously, Jodi. Their real agenda in this 'truthy' age of ours is not to assist citizens in their understanding of society and politics, but to PREVENT them from taking part in the process of government. As long as you have a convincing expression on your face and a moving oratorical style, you will always find the attention you're looking for.
If, on the other hand, you express a view of the world that differs from that of the powerful and the self-annointed, you will be hounded to support your information with endless amounts of evidence. The desired effect, of course, is to discourage logic and intuition while instilling discomfort and self-doubt in the public consciousness.
Not very poetic, but clear enough for anyone to follow, no?
Liars are liars and Satan is the prince of liars. These pompous puritans who claim to be christians are so full of shit. They lie. They cheat. They steal elections and then they rob the treasury, Bill Maher is right about religion. It is the source of all evil in our world.
Angry Irish,
I was with you until you got out your paint roller of a brush regarding liberals not feeding the hungry or clothing the naked or ... . I have been helping out at Cathilic Worker houses for more than twenty five years. Many if not most of the people helping there are "liberal" if you need to put a label on them. There are many so called liberal people of faith who work for peace and justice. Just because there is criticism of the conditons that make the world unjust does not mean we don't do what we can to help where we can. My mantra is from Francis of Assisi "Always preach the gospel and use words if you must."
Planned Parenthood is the best thing for the environment. Therefore it is the enemy of cancerous, life destroying, unlimited growth.
Planned Parenthood is robbing the MIC of cannon fodder and therefore must be stopped.
Kyle has it RIGHT.
Facts are not needed to win arguments. Appeals to emotion are much more effective and he and all his lying cronies know it.
So what do liberals and the left do?
Counter the arguments with more dry facts.
Yet, it's a known fact that dry facts don't win arguments.
Let's take a minute to think about this oxymoron that has plagued the left since marx .
You raise an excellent point.
But there's more than finding the right story, or "frame", for an argument. For those who lack an awareness of how a just society ultimately benefits each individual, you will also need to frame your appeal to their selfish interests.
People who lack empathy (or even sympathy -- just check this out this image if you need a lesson as to the extent of the problem http://i.imgur.com/eFYYe.jpg ) will not be persuaded with glittering examples of gross injustices or unbearable tragedies to others. Unfortunately you will need to find a way to appeal to their baser, purely selfish interests while propping up their innate superiority (think how easily Limbaugh achieves this).
Carrots and sticks... Heaven and hell... make it as personal and simplistic as possible. Clarence Darrow, where are you when we need you most?!
These socalled life preservers care not at all about the person once born. No health care, no public education, off to war for imperial glory. No gun control, of course- it is our right to kill our neighbours. This emphasis on private matters like abortion, homosexuality, drug use is pathetic, when the country imprisons huge numbers of its inhabitants and sends lots of others to kill foreigners in their own lands. As well, selling arms all over the world, especially to dictators, makes peace unlikely anywhere.
Re: points 2, 4 & 6.
#2 Medical evidence points both ways re: fetal pain. It seems at 20 weeks a fetus can experience pain
#4 To lump all of these together defies logic. In fact there are women who commit suicide out of guilt and despondency around abortion. If you truly want to be honest read Rachel McNair's work (Consistent Life Ethic) where as a psychologist she's found evidence that women who have abortions experience a form of post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSS) not similar to that soldiers returning from war.
There are other works about the emotional & psychological side-effects of abortion.
Moreover if you live in wantonly pro-choice culture psychologists who may in fact be pro-choice may not even bother asking questions of their clients about previous abortions. One doesn't ask what one assumes to be true or not true.
#6 While its true that federal funds do not pay for abortions the pro-life argument isn't so much that abortions are paid directly by federal money, but by providing federal money to Planned Parenthood for some of its other activities money in fact financial resources are freed up for abortion.
All of this said - I do think Planned Parenthood provides some valuable resources. I simply don't believe Planned Parenthood should be providing abortions.
To tpwebb:
#2 It 'seems' that at 20 weeks a fetus can experience pain? That's highly scientific. Aside from that, what the author was talking about was a recently-fertilized egg, not a 5-month-old fetus. (BTW, it 'seemed' to Jon Kyl that 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does is perform abortions. Not true, but who cares?)
#4 There are also some women who commit suicide because they have children. And there are women, like Susan Smith, who murdered her two little sons, who kill their children. There is also a common syndrome known as post-partum depression. Are any of these good reasons to prevent women from having children should they want them? Should we counsel pregnant mothers of the possibility that they might become any of these rare types after having a child?
#6 Money freed up for 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's operations? Actually, as the author mentioned, the funds for abortion come from private groups, not the government.
BTW, Rachel McNair is a fervid anti-abortion activist; her opinion on the matter can hardly be called independent.
Some "Politicians" seem to be to always try to find some way to get into a woman's uterus.
Lets just get down to the nitty gritty. Republican's are surely no friend of women or at least the modern women of today. The RIGHT is stuck in the Stone Age and always will be. The reality is that nobody really wants an Abortion or to destroy a tiny life or any life. However, the RIGHT has nothing good to offer the citizens and that's why they push the Abortion issue and other draconian ideas.
What to me is the real underlying issue today is who wants progress and who wants regression or a trip down ugly lane. I really need not say no more but just listen and watch the theater of the absurd in Washington DC.
We and I mean the most of us are getting the royal shafting from both Parties except one only cares about wars, lobbyists, big business and no tax increases for the supper rich since their money will trickle down.
So there we have it in a nutshell.
As far as the President goes he is totally irrelevant to the RIGHT except as a punching bag. What a sad state of affairs for a once great country that is just another country in this big wide world.
We are now heading for 2012 and what a reality show that will be.
It was rumored that Senator Kyl said that the Republican Party was NOT against women's rights, gay rights, immigrant rights, was racist, was against the middle class, and was NOT in the pockets of the rich.
Later when cornered by an independent news crew, Kyl immediately caved Obama style, and said those statements were "not intended to be factual".
Our tax dollars to to pay for Viagra for Afghan warlords. The kind of guys who rape (sorry marry) ten year old girls. I want a moral exemption from my taxes going for this. I get furious and disgusted when I see warmongers suddenly get all sentimental about fetuses. I want a moral exemption from paying for war. Why don't we go on the offensive find a female member of the house to introduce a bill for moral exemptions for nuclear power which kills people, war, and warlord viagra. I'm so sick of these creepy morons pretending they care about "life" That is the biggest lie of all.
What confuses me is that first of all contraception is frowned upon, so then all these women become pregnant who wouldn't otherwise - if they had proper information and prevention technology. This has been denied them, because contraception is "bad." Men often initiate sexual intercourse and don't always voluntarily use contraception either. So then we have more pregnant women, but they are not supposed to get abortions, because that is "wrong." So all these unwanted children are brought into this world, and if the father has bailed out and left, the single mother struggles without proper financial support because the U.S. takes such great pride in its low welfare rate. Which part of this makes sense? No contraception? No abortion? No financial or other type of support for single moms - who didn't want to have sex, didn't want to become pregnant and didn't really choose to have a child? Then there are inevitable social problems with these marginalized underserved children, and who is the first to deny funding for social problems? The ones who caused them of course!
Pro-lifers are murderers. Lying is nothing to them.
The logical conclusion of your argument:
"Every sperm is precious,
every sperm is great,
if a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate."
- Monty Python "The Meaning of Life"
The point of this debate is Who Decides. When a life cannot survive until a certain stage of development, it is only the mother who can provide that shelter. Since that is the case, the mother is the only agent on this Earth qualified to make that decision. We must leave it up to her and support her decision.
If God had wanted men to decide about abortions, she would have given them wombs.
The root of the oppositon to Planned Parenthood is the Catholic Church's theology of suffering. Years ago I read a book about Fatima and the children. I was sick with the suffering the so called Blessed Virgin( Imagine that after you die people refer to your sexual condition forever) Mother forced these children to go through.Their sick God says suffering is good comfort, pleasure and joy is bad. We are all sinners and must suffer for our sins. Opus Dei is one of the most serious orders devoted to a God who demands pain and hardship. They are propagating their fanatic beliefs in Latin America. Family Planning prevents pain suffering and hardship for millions of families I believe Jesus would be for Family Planning as the church tells us He had a free choice to save us or not. Women should have a free choice to sacrifice their lives to save a fetus or not.
I used to believe what you state in your post angry Irishman. It all sounds so wonderful and perfect but real life is not perfect or wonderful for many people.Natural family planning the only birth control the church allows but it does not work for all women. If a woman has three children by C. Section which proves that catholic birth control does not work for her and even if it did the woman must have the mans cooperation,and her doctor says no more children or she would risk her life due to pregnancy complications the catholic bishop would not allow contraception because contraception is intrinsically evil and cannot be used to save a woman' life. But when the man said he was going to divorce the woman because he could not sleep next to her for the rest of their lives and totally abstain, the Bishop allowed them to practice contraception because it was the lesser of two evils. This catholic church that covers up the priests child sex abuse and demands that married couples have sex the way they tell them is an insane cult. How dare you say that all women who need abortions are unmarried. There are at least 500,000 women a year who die of pregnancy complications because they cannot get access to contraception or abortion. You do not know what you are talking about. God is not the evil Supreme Being that the Catholics portray Him/Her to be. I am an Irish recovering catholic. recovering with my pain, scars and hardship due to believing what you are preaching. Rather than feel sorry for myself I am working in support of Planned Parenthood trying to prevent other women from going through what I endured. Suffering that you as a man cannot understand.
If we would require our citizens, especially public officials, to uphold the oath to the United States Flag, he could be arrested for deceit. The flag, instituted as a pledge of conduct in order that our country might foster a free society, is constructed upon a white background; this represents purity, innocence, and freedom form guile. Also, honor, one's sincerity to uphold one's word, is what creates trust; and it it trust which allows freedom. Honor is the atmosphere which nourishes freedom... honor is the air that we breathe. This is represented in the flag as a patch of blue sky within which are the constellation of states, joined in common union. We need to reinforce the symbolic meaning of our flag and hold our people accountable to it.