I wish I had my laptop with me, because typing on my phone is a hassle. But I’m still on campus so whatever.
For the third time this semester the pro-life crowd is back. After being tossed out for those huge graphic displays (someone made a complaint that the warnings were too small and the signs were too big) they’re back with sidewalk poster board signs. And they have clear warnings about the graphic nature of their boards.
Unrelated, someone has smeared trump campaign slogans all over the campus without a permit. I checked, because I wanted to do another candidate when I saw those and found out. So it’s a wonderful day for campus visual assault.
Mum not going to say these groups are inherently anti-woman, though the logical outcomes of their policy ideas are, because they don’t think of themselves that way. I’m not going to put too much emphasis on the fact that everyone of them here today is male, because I don’t think that it’s a representative sample of their group of you judge from national trends. I don’t like straw men and I don’t like unfairness.
A relevant factor here is that I have had an abortion. A number of years ago, I got a sinus infection and had to take penicillin to clear it up, rendering the pill ineffective. I got pregnant. I was broke, living on $8/hour while attending college as a returning student. My boyfriend (now my husband) was in no position to have kids, and we weren’t sure about how our relationship would progress. So I made the hardest decision I have ever made and had a medical abortion. I took two pills and miscarried. Looking back I am so glad I did. It was expensive, and I didn’t eat much for a couple weeks to get the cash, but it was the best option I had.
So knowing this take what I have to say in context.
I don’t agree with these people. I have fundamental disagreements not just about if it should be legal but what it even is. I disagree with their definitions of rights, and of how to distribute them. I disagree on the value of life and of human life in particular. But that doesn’t bother me too much. They are allowed to be wrong, everybody is from time to time. I know I’m wrong about some things.
They don’t think their position through. They don’t understand the implications. They often don’t understand the medical facts. I have spoken with them in length. They aren’t bad people, they think what they are doing is right. But too often they see the issue as black and white, without nuance.
So what is my issue with them?
They lie.
This is the one thing that will set me off (other than blatant racism, which they were guilty of in their last display as well). On their last go round here I took the time to fact check their posters. And the number of blatant falsehoods on it was startling. They claimed links to cancer (there isn’t), to infertility (there isn’t) and to depression (no clear link exists). They claimed use of government money for it (there isn’t), and that it was a eugenics operation against black people (seriously?!?).
This was after I talked to one of the women there (not here today) who, upon discovering I didn’t believe in God, commenced to lecturing me on how I had to find Jesus.
So I went to their board they had set up for public comments. I put links to all the sources that showed they were lying. They wrote in big letters:
IX: THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS.
I don’t mind dissenting opinions. If I’m wrong, I want to know. And I believe a university should be open to all ideas. I even support the right of these people to lie to others.
But to them, fuck you lying liars and the lies you tell.