{"id":77193,"date":"2015-10-16T15:39:35","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T19:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=77193"},"modified":"2015-10-16T15:39:35","modified_gmt":"2015-10-16T19:39:35","slug":"differing-pro-lifers-can-cooperate-just-fine-respect-mutual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/differing-pro-lifers-can-cooperate-just-fine-respect-mutual\/","title":{"rendered":"Differing pro-lifers can cooperate just fine – when respect is mutual"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It is a perennial oddity of abortion apologetics that a movement whose own reasoning is shallow<\/a> and ethically bankrupt<\/a>, to the point of vapidity<\/a>, so unabashedly lectures its opponents on their alleged immorality and insensitivity.<\/p>\n

\"Jennie

Jennie Kuckertz (via sandiego.edu)<\/p><\/div>\n

That was surely xoJane’s goal in publishing Jennie Kuckertz’s claims<\/a> that her past as a \u201cformer pro-life activist\u201d in college gave her critical insight into how the broader pro-life movement made her \u201cfeel disempowered and voiceless,” though Kuckertz herself appears more nuanced than that:<\/p>\n

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My freshman year was one of growth and challenge regarding the dignity and value of human life. I learned about the biology of the developing human in utero, the unfathomable cost of capital punishment, the injustices of inaccessible healthcare, and the massive human costs of a broken immigration system. I was brought into the pro-life consciousness with a broad understanding of what it meant to be pro-life. Like so many freshman, I felt as though my window to understanding the world had been opened. It did not take me long to realize that this was my most na\u00efve moment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Interestingly, Kuckertz recounts a number of instances of pro-abortion leftists stereotyping her based on her opposition to abortion, including someone who actually said, \u201cI\u2019m surprised you hang out with the pro-life group, you seem like you care about human rights,\u201d and even a talk with an adviser on the possibility of grad schools and employers blacklisting people for being pro-life.<\/p>\n

Alas, despite these being far more real and blatant displays of close-mindedness than anything said of pro-lifers in the piece, pro-abortion intolerance isn\u2019t the headline. Go figure.<\/p>\n

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In 2008, I got on a bus to Washington D.C. for the March for Life with 50 other college anti-abortion activists. I was fired up and ready to raise awareness. To my surprise, there were no talks on advocating for healthcare or childcare access. Instead, we heard a series of lectures on how chastity was important in promoting a \u201cculture of life.\u201d They urged that if we had committed this grave mortal sin that we should repent. I had a hard time understanding how me personally not having sex was directly tied to saving lives.<\/p>\n

Throughout college I worked in leadership roles with six major pro-life organizations. Consistently and to my extreme frustration, the other leaders seemed far more interested in promoting chastity than in doing anything that would actually result in fewer abortions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And the disconnect comes into focus. It seems the March for Life\u2019s sin was not actual intolerance for Kuckertz\u2019s views, but that speakers dared to have differing views of their own.<\/p>\n

She assumes as a given not only that she has the other issues figured out better than more conservative pro-lifers\u2014to the point where not echoing her is tantamount to not caring about the issue at all\u2014but that her favored policies\u2019 alleged impact on abortion rates is a proven fact. But time<\/a> and time<\/a> and time<\/a> and time<\/a> and time<\/a> again, pro-lifers have shown that the relationship between government spending and abortion rates is far more complicated than that.<\/p>\n

Are we to believe that throughout the course of \u201cleadership roles with six major pro-life organizations,\u201d none of this came up? That Kuckertz never had conversations with friends and colleagues that opened her eyes to their perspective? And really, how can a pro-lifer have \u201ca hard time understanding\u201d how not creating potential abortion victims in the first place is tied to reducing abortions?<\/p>\n

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In the wake of the Planned Parenthood undercover videos, I\u2019ve felt an overwhelming flood of emotions. I am outraged at those who have hijacked the abortion issue as a means to deny women reproductive health services. I am appalled that my tax dollars support an organization that advocates for the grisly abortion practices so callously described in those videos [\u2026] To demonize an entire organization is to miss the nuances of Planned Parenthood\u2019s role in reproductive health. However, I\u2019ve found little appreciation for nuance on either side of this issue. As such, I would like to direct a \u201cshame on you\u201d to the \u201cpro-life\u201d movement as well as to Planned Parenthood. Shame on you \u201cpro-life\u201d leaders, because you have put your religious beliefs above the well-being of unborn children and their mothers. You have alienated activists such as myself by insisting that we adhere to your narrow version of what it means to be \u201cpro-life.\u201d
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Sorry, but red flags go up when somebody claiming to share your basic cause and be independent of the opposition repeats several of the opposition\u2019s most easily-disprovable attacks on you.<\/p>\n