Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Don't Feed The Crazies

While Suzie All-Crap and the Fetusmania tour are steaming down the road, playing to sell outs and promoting their Do As your Told, Slut agenda at least someone is paying attention. Quebec doctors are looking past the smoke and mirrors and speaking truth.

Gaetan Barrette, who heads the province's association of specialist doctors, criticized Bill C-484 for opening the door to recognizing the rights of a fetus...

Barrette, whose association rarely weighs in on policy debates, pointed out that the bill's supporters are already eyeing a court challenge to Canada's abortion laws.

He says the association wants to protect abortion doctors from possible lawsuits and avoid a return to back-alley abortions.

Sadly, this sensible approach to dishonest legislation will be falling upon deaf ears. The proponents of the legislation are busy rending their clothes in outrage and
practicing their photography.

Bethany, a moderator at Jill Stanek's blog posted some pictures of her 6 week-old miscarried unborn child.


Because that is a sure sign of a balanced mind. Unfortunately someone took it in their head to take the photos and prank them. Putting aside how deeply fucked up it is go rooting through the discharge of a miscarriage to take pictures of an embryo (evidently named Blessing), it is pretty damned wrong to alter the photos for the purpose of hurtful comedy or politics.

That sort of thing is no different that plastering trucks with gory shots of aborted fetuses or harassing women with gore porn posters and flyers at clinics. Frankly, I'd prefer if we didn't sink to the level of ignorance that the anti-choice side employs. I know that the loss of a wanted pregnancy is a devastating emotional blow. We should not exploit that loss or the pain it causes, no matter how crazy the individual's attempts to deal with it might seem.

It is also counter productive as a political statement as we on the pro-choice side of the fence will forever be branded as the cruel devils that mock a crazy woman's pain. The hundreds of prayers and inarticulate protestations at Stanek's blog are testament to that. Strange that they do not share their rabid pro-life sentiments when it comes to the lives of physicians or clinic workers. I will condemn the prankster that messed with the photo (and I'll put aside the nagging suspicion that it was an inside job, perpetrated to rouse sympathy and political fervor). However the best we ever see from the anti-choice zealots is a disavowal of the clinic bombers, doctor killers and other terrorists in their own ranks, it isn't us, they say. And while they might not individually be involved in those acts of terror, they are not loud in condemning such acts, as the chill on the medical profession serves their ends.

8 comments:

JJ said...

Well said as always, PSA.

The official photographer for the "Do As You're Told, Slut" agenda is having her say at my place even as we speak -- can a Full-Scale Prayer Assault be far behind?

Get your helmet on. INcoming!!!

KEvron said...

"Putting aside how deeply fucked up it is go rooting through the discharge of a miscarriage to take pictures of an embryo"

while the photography veers into the obsessive, recovery of a miscarriage is standard practice, as the caregiver will want to examine the remains.

KEvron

Ti-Guy said...

This is a problem that is a long time in the making; people parading their pain over intimate issues in front of the world at large. I'm not sure what motivates this; either grief, or ignorance, or, quite frankly, narcissism. It sounds cold, but why else expose perfect strangers to your grief?

What could they have wanted? There are plenty of closed discussions where that kind of support could be provided (although bringing strangers into your grief is always a bad idea).

As far as I'm concerned, the fault here lies with Jill Stanek, who permitted the photos of a miscarried fetus to appear on her blog in the first place. She should be condemned vocally for having done this.

I won't bother agreeing with you on the tastelessness of photoshopping those images and emailing them directly to the happless Bethany. Some people need to have their Internet cut off.

JJ said...

ti-guy - "What could they have wanted?"

Therein lies the humour of the situation.

The shock! and pearl-clutching! -- I call bullshit. When you get weird on the internet, it should come as no surprise when someone gets weird right back.

They published the photoshopped pics because they wanted to paint all pro-choicers with that brush. Though given their response, one couldn't be blamed for wondering about the ideology of the person who did the photoshops.

Red Tory said...

Just to point out the obvious, two wrongs don’t make a right.

Quite aside from being in incredibly poor taste, that was some really atrocious Photoshopping. Whoever did it should be ashamed of themselves.

liberal supporter said...

We just saw it pointed out here yesterday that "pro choice" does not mean "pro abortion". Naturally the anti-choicers will need to dispel that as quickly as they can with this Reichstag fire.

KEvron said...

she gratuitously posted her image in an act of emotional blackmail. it was in bad taste and unfair, as are the subsequent condemnations-by-very-loose-association of "pro-abortionists". frankly, i'm indifferent to the response she illicited.

btw, "code pink promotes the murder of our troops"....

KEvron

KEvron said...

aw, fuck! "elicited"....

KEvron