Comments on: Pro-life, pro-contraception blogswarm May 31

By: Jen R

Jen R — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:19:09 +0000

Yay! I can’t wait to read it!

By: GreenEyedLilo

GreenEyedLilo — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:50:52 +0000

Thanks for letting me know about this! I’ve only ever participated in one blogswarm, but this sounds like a worthwhile second. I very seldom blog about life issues, but I need to.

By: Jaybones

Jaybones — Sat, 17 May 2008 23:36:00 +0000

Naaman’s conversion story, as printed on Jill Stanek’s website, is a piece of fiction. I don’t know why anyone would believe anything else that he writes.

By: Jen R

Jen R — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:13:45 +0000

Anthea, please feel free to participate! It doesn’t have to be a long post, and LJs definitely count — in fact, that reminds me that I meant to post an invitation in badprolife.

By: Anthea

Anthea — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:47:42 +0000

I may attempt to participate, not that I am likely to have much of anything intelligent to say and not that my journal really qualifies as a blog or anything. Maybe I’ll just applaud and link to those of you who are actually good at this sort of thing. ^_^

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 13 May 2008 05:07:38 +0000

Naaman, this blog doesn’t have to respect your views. It’s not geared toward traditional pro-lifers. The blogger seems to be decent about it though, but I think you taken offense because somebody has an opinion you don’t like.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 13 May 2008 05:07:21 +0000

Naaman, this blog doesn’t have to respect your views. It’s not geared toward traditional pro-lifers. The blogger seems to be decent about it though, but I think your taken offense because somebody has an opinion you don’t like.

By: Marysia

Marysia — Thu, 08 May 2008 23:04:54 +0000

There is a very long, historically based conflating of contraception with abortion on *both* sides of the abortion debate. One extreme tries to make abortion acceptable by equating it with contraception. The other tries to render contraception unacceptable by equating it with abortion.

This is definitely still going on, and it needs to be understood as part of any debate or conversation on the subject.

By: Jen R

Jen R — Thu, 08 May 2008 19:00:29 +0000

To be honest, you really should make the distinction between pro-lifers who disapprove of contraception (a sizable minority) and pro-lifers who actually want to ban contraception (practically none).

I agree that this is an important distinction. (And this is where I wish that I kept better track of my blog comments, because I know I’ve had this conversation with JivinJ before.) I don’t define someone as opposed to contraception if they simply don’t think it’s right for them. But neither do I limit the category to those who think it should be banned. I consider someone opposed to contraception if they think that it isn’t right for anyone, and that its use should be discouraged.

I’m sorry you don’t find my posts respectful. I do my best, but when I find someone’s beliefs and actions actively harmful, I’m not going to pretend otherwise. I hope that even if I can’t respect a person’s views or actions, I can respect their inherent human dignity and treat them as everyone deserves to be treated.

By: Naaman

Naaman — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:19:39 +0000

To be honest, you really should make the distinction between pro-lifers who disapprove of contraception (a sizable minority) and pro-lifers who actually want to ban contraception (practically none).

There are many thorny issues around contraception, including:
* Does contraception actually increase abortion rates, STD rates, and other bad things?
* Which contraceptives are actually early-term abortions?
* Are contraceptives inherently immoral?
* How did the Supreme Court’s invention of a Constitutional “right” to contraception lead to their invention of a Constitutional “right” to abortion?

Even with all of these issues, it should be noted that I’ve never seen any pro-lifer argue that contraception should actually be banned. Folks will argue that contraception shouldn’t be given out in our schools, or that it shouldn’t be promoted as the answer to every problem … but I haven’t seen anyone arguing for an outright ban on contraception. (NOTE: Abortifacient contraceptives may be the exception to this rule, but I haven’t yet seen someone arguing to ban them either.) Yet Marysia’s comment about “rights” leads me to believe that she thinks otherwise. Pro-lifers should be able to disagree on these issues without attacking each other or lying about each other.

I sincerely hope that your blogswarm will be respectful of those pro-lifers who disagree with you. Given other posts on your blog, I am suspicious … but hopeful.