Abortion advocates like to call pro-lifers the extremists, but is that really the case? As evidence, let’s examine Jessica Valenti’s latest pro-abortion rallying cry:
It’s time resuscitate the old rallying cry for “free abortions on demand without apology.” It may not be a popular message – but it’s absolutely necessary. After all, the opposition doesn’t have nearly as many caveats. They’re fighting for earlier and earlier bans on abortions, pushing for no exceptions for rape and incest, fighting against birth control coverage – even insisting that they have the right to threaten abortion providers. The all-out strategy is working; since 2010 over 50 abortion clinics have stop providing services.
… Earlier this month, I went to the launch of All Above All, a campaign dedicated to restoring public funding for abortion. I listed to partners in the campaign – representatives from organizations like the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and the Center for Reproductive Rights – describe the desperate need to stop treating funding for abortion as a “third rail issue.” They talked about women who had to sell diapers and formula to be able to afford their abortions, and the incredible toll the Hyde Amendment takes on low-income families. It’s a message reproductive justice proponents and organizations have been hammering home for years, a message the mainstream movement has been hesitant to take on.
I understand the trepidation – we live in a country where even talking about insurance coverage for birth control erupted in a national slut-shaming extravaganza. But the cost of remaining “mainstream-friendly” is too high. Women should not have to count on bowl-a-thons and yard sales to be able to access the care they need. As wonderful as abortion funds are, their existence is proof that the U.S. is failing the most in need.
So evidently, it isn’t enough for abortion to just be legal. Abortion needs to be free, and available on demand — meaning at any time, for any reason, no matter what. A woman should never have any hurdles, whatsoever, to killing her unborn child. And of course, nothing is actually free. What “free” actually means is taxpayer-funded. Despite the fact that the majority of Americans feel that abortion is morally wrong, Valenti and her ilk think that all of these Americans should be forced to fund abortion.
The legality of abortion may be an issue on which Americans remain fairly evenly split. It’s true that a sizable number of people don’t want abortion completely banned. But the vast, overwhelming majority also agree with a heavy amount of restrictions on abortion as well — gestational limits, parental notification laws, etc. And forcing all taxpayers to pay for abortion is certainly not a proposal that enjoys widespread public support. Yet this is exactly what Valenti and her fellow pro-aborts want.
Ironic, isn’t it? Valenti is advocating for the very thing that her crowd so often accuses pro-lifers of doing: forcing what they want onto everyone else. They don’t care if the rest of the country disagrees. They don’t care if you don’t want to pay for someone’s abortion. If they had their way, you would be forced to fund it.
And it’s pro-lifers who are the extremists?
