i'm going to say this one time, and then i'm going to shut up. re: bristol palin. the american liberal is, - seriously, literally - pro-abortion and anti-choice, believes essentially in mandatory abortion. what does the average liberal mom do when her 16-year-old daughter shows up pregnant? drags her immediately to the abortion clinic, whatever the daughter's (or the babydad's, of course) misgivings. the american left thinks that bristol palin having her baby is, actually, morally wrong. and more to the point, it shows something terrible about her mom, who had a moral obligation to make her daughter have an abortion. and one reason for this is that if you have a baby when you're 16, you will likely slip out of our class. you'll go live with joey, the kid who wants to be a mechanic. you'll take classes at the community college instead of heading off to a decent school. you'll end up in a housecoat with a houseful of wailing babies, listening to faith hill. what haunts the imagination of the american liberal: my family, in the next generation, will be white trash. maybe it would be more interesting to look at these sorts of motivations than to try to figure out "when human life begins."

Comments

[paul of crazy like whoa]

"what else explains derogatory terms like "breeders"?"

um... the gayness?

seriously, where are you hanging around where you hear "breeder" used as a derogatory... and why is it our fault?

[Charles D]

1. No one is "pro-abortion". Abortion is not something anyone advocates as a preferred method of birth control, and certainly not as a "moral obligation".
2. No one is suggesting that the Bristol Palin's of the world should not be able to choose to carry their fetus to term, far from it. We liberals are only asking that every American female have the right to choose the option that is right for her.

What American liberals are demanding is that we respect the right of all Americans to make their own private decisions about their pregnancy rather than having the government remove choices and thus force them to have a child they do not want.

If Sarah and Todd Palin discussed the options with their daughter and Bristol freely chose to carry the baby to term, then no liberal I know would have any objection whatever. If they forced her to do this against her will, then that's bad parenting.

[meh]

"you think people are opposed to other people having kids?"

what else explains derogatory terms like "breeders"?

[Ric Locke]

"what haunts the imagination of the american liberal: my family, in the next generation, will be white trash."

Now apply that insight to "liberal" attitudes toward George W. Bush.

Regards,
Ric

[mr.fun]

zing!

[salome]

Have you seen Ted Rall's latest comic? It exactly illustrates the phenomenon you describe:

http://www.rall.com/uploaded_images/9-6-08-703796.jpg

[paul of crazy like whoa]

just shows to go you... there's nothing like a sweeping generalization to make an already stupid debate even stupider.

abortion on demand? fuck that: we want abortion by command!

i'm just curious... if a post like this HAD a point, what might it be?

[mr.fun]

I know people, well, friends of mrs.fun's, who have had abortions on these exact grounds. there's a time and a place, as they say.

[Steve French]

I think what you're talking about is where does the moral problem exist?

To the liberal, it's immoral to bring in children as some sub-optimal time in a woman's life, like when you're 16. Therefore abortion is the moral (and preferred) thing to do.

I do think you're onto something here.

[el serracho]

Hey Crispy,

you know i dig your shit for the most part and our points of disagreement are far fewer than those on which we agree. that said.. what you just typed is a load of nonsense. seriously, wtf? anti-choice? you think people are opposed to other people having kids? or teenagers for that matter? they have have certain social disagreements with it (oh that girl dun gone and ruined her life) but.. dude.

come on.

[crispy]

i am pro-choice on the usual grounds. i think people should control their body and that whether and when to have kids is a hard choice best left to the woman in question. that doesn't mean, however, that we can't look at the actual motivations, cultural meanings, etc. in a way this is a familiar criticism of the second-wave feminism that made abortion a paramount issue: that really, it's a lot about money and class: it was a liberation movement for middle class housewife, not for, for example, black women or poor women.

[Henry]

I have no idea whether you are right about the motivation of pro-choice American liberals, except that what you describe is not my motivation for being pro-choice. But, if you are right about the motivation of pro-choice American liberals other than me, does that say anything about whether abortion is moral or whether it should be legal?