Oh look, another rant!

[amadeupname]

Today's rant inspired by maladaptive's most recent post.

I've noticed a disturbing trend in the pro-life movement -- more disturbing than the desire to control our uteruses, I mean. (What IS the plural for uterus, anyway? Uterii? Uterae? Uteres?) They've apparently decided to compare abortion to the Holocaust - I've even heard it called the "American Holocaust". I've seen that phrase on T-shirts, along with the predictable "Abortion is Murder" and the like.

The problem with this analogy is that -- now, bear with me people, and try not to faint from the shock -- abortion and the Holocaust are not even remotely the same thing. Abortion consists of a doctor removing an unwanted life form from a woman who could have any number of varying reasons to not want to be pregnant, and I can guarantee you most of them aren't having abortions because they hate children and want them all to die. The Holocaust, on the other hand, was caused by a sick, twisted individual who had an irrational hatred of anyone who didn't fit his idea of the perfect human, and consisted of over eleven million people being killed in death camps through various horrifying means. The survivors were in pretty bad shape themselves, and some of them didn't live too long after they were liberated. Call me crazy, but I'm not seeing the parallels here.

If there are any Jewish people on my f-list (or just reading this entry, that would be great plzkthxbai), what are your opinions on this? I'm guessing I'm not ever going to get the opinion of an actual Holocaust survivor, but an actual Jewish person's perspective would be appreciated. I mean, just because I'd assume that a comparison between a horrific act of violence and hatred toward a group of people and a controversial arguement between what is and is not considered murder would offend me if I belonged to the former group, that doesn't mean that it holds true for anyone in that group, right?

Also, this is not supposed to be an abortion debate in the typical sense. I'm not getting into whether it's right or wrong, just whether it's right or wrong to use this kind of analogy.

Comments

[nyxalinth.livejournal.com]

Definately not the same, not even remotely. Those people get more and more offensive every day.

When I lived in Florida, some asshole drove a white van with a blown-up photo of an aborted fetus--blood and gore everywhere--plastered to the side of it. It also had some anti-abortion rehtoric written on it, but I can't rememebr what it said. What a sick fuck.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

Oh no dude, see, we women have abortions because we hate babies and want to eradicate their subpar genes from the planet, allowing our nonbaby race to flourish, as it rightly should!

TOTALLY A PERFECT PARALLEL OMG.

[thesaneminority.livejournal.com]

Some days you make it really hard not to proclaim my undying love for you, you know that?

[kay-willow.livejournal.com]

Speaking as a Jew: what the fuck is wrong with them.

When I was an undergrad at a very high-population public school, once a year there would be a period of three days or so where this battle would come rawr to the front. The anti-abortionists would set up signs and posters and tables over about sixty square feet right in the doorway of the campus center, so that every time you went to get lunch you had to first navigate their propaganda with pictures of grotesque fetuses proclaiming "This could have been your underclassman" -- or pictures from the Holocaust, gas chambers, mass graves -- comparing it to abortion.

Bull. shit.

You can't just say that "one thing that offends me = every other thing that offends me". It's great if you think that abortion is a crime against humanity, but no, it's NOT the same as genocide in World War II or civil war in Nigeria. Not until Clinton starts having pregnant woman rounded up into camps and has unborn children pulled from them en masse while they kick and scream, kk.

[thesaneminority.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, THANK YOU. I was wondering if I was just being an uber-sensitive idiot or something.

I mean, seriously. It's like me comparing occasionally being considered a racist because I'm a white girl to Jim Crow laws or something. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING.

Also disturbing is the fact that the pamphlet that originally sparked this inner "OMGwhatthehellisthematterwiththosefuckers" debate was handed to my friend by a ten year old child. Why is a ten year old out of school in the middle of a weekday, and more importantly, why are you filling his head head hateful, hypocritical vitriol, people?!

[amethyst-mind.livejournal.com]

I always found it incredibly ironic that the hardcore pro-lifers are against killing babies, but are all for bombing abortion clinics and so on. Death is death, folks.

We had a huge abortion rally on campus just before the school year ended, and women were parading their kids around shouting, "WHEN YOU HAVE AN ABORTION, THIS IS WHAT YOU KILL!" Just what all kids need, an exposure to ignorance, hatred, and giant pictures of bloody, torn-up babies. There was also the added bonus of several of them being violently anti-gay and having no qualms about telling gays that they were "going to burn in Hell for being fags". How did it end? With a huge student protest AGAINST THEM, not for them. What a way to draw people to your side, huh?

And, according to my Whitaker's Words dictionary, it's "uteri" with one i. Uterus is actually a masculine Latin word. Bizarre!

[thesaneminority.livejournal.com]

I knew you'd be able to answer that question for me! Thanks. (And it's no more bizarre than the fact that Brust (breast) is a masculine German word. Well, maybe slightly.)

I agree on the irony bit. I'm also finding it ironic that pro-life groups are all "Save the unborn babies!", but once that baby's born, that's not THEIR problem. All for the sanctity of life as long as it's in utero, huh?

[amethyst-mind.livejournal.com]

A baby that's out of the womb is tainted goods, apparently. Once it touches air, the really staunch pro-lifers could care less, which is very sad considering what horrible things could await the kid.

[soulfire003.livejournal.com]

How about we find an abortion clinic, take a few of the aborted fetuses, find some of these people you're talking about, and stuff the fetuses down their throats?

... Okay, all vehemence aside, what a way to try and voice your opinion. Sounds to me like they're getting more and more desperate as the months roll by, y'know? Pretty soon they're gonna be comparing abortion to mascara or something. I dunno.

[hidden-now5.livejournal.com]

uterus, uteri
uteri, uterorum
utero, uteris
uterum, uteros
utero, uteris

Ha! Take that 4 years of Latin.

I hate pro-lifers who do all this stupid hyperbole. It gives rational pro-lifers like me a bad name. In some senses it can be related to a holocaust (not necessarily the holocaust of the 1940's), but this is just a prime example of making anything mean anything you want it to. There are better ways, and I'm glad that those are at least making a more positive impact.

[thesaneminority.livejournal.com]

That still depends on your view of abortion, I guess. A holocaust is a mass slaughter, and I don't see abortion as slaughter of any kind. But we're not getting into that, because I'd rather not have that kind of drama in my personal journal, thank you very much. ;)

[yashahime.livejournal.com]

Weighing in a little late...as I recall, when those ads first started hitting, or at least the last wave of them started hitting the streets, I recall reading a newspaper article that interviewed a number of Holocaust survivors. Pretty much all of them were offended to the point where you could see it dripping off their quotes. The general consensus was, "How dare you trivialize what we went through this way!?"