Why are anti-Choice people allowed to post here on DU?

[The Straight Story]

In response to this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5838469
Why are anti-abortion people allowed to post at DU?

Anti-Choice to me means:
You want to tell others -
Where they can drink
Where they can eat
Work
What they can drive

And so much more - in other words, you want to control the lives of others because you see it as impacting you in some way, shape, or form.

Your body, your choice where to drink....Oh wait, we don't really believe that. We think you are too stupid and need us to tell you where you can drink. You might make a bad decision (based on our own beliefs) so we will limit your choice for your own protection.

You DON'T really want free choice over your body, you want people to tell you how to live...Except when you don't want them to.

Are you really pro-choice - your body your choice, or do you only feel that way on some issues (the ones you agree with)?

In other words - do you agree with the premise, even if you don't agree with the outcome?

I don't like abortion myself - but then I am a man who can't get pregnant and have to make such choices. So I stand down because I believe YOU are adult enough to make choices over your body.

Why don't we on the left expand that out? Why do we put up with companies that tell you how to live at home (ala smoking, previous drug use, etc) and limit choices? Is it because we really believe that your body and choices affect others so we should control such things?

Either you are pro choice or you are not.

And if you are anti-choice - should you be posting here?

Freedom is a pain in the ass to some, because they want to control the lives of others.

If you want to control me, my life, where I can go, who I can hang with, then I don't see you as progressive, I see you as controlling.

What part of 'choice' are you not getting?

[sakabatou]

1. One, this is a semi-open forum

or two, the mods have not gotten to the poster yet.

[noamnety]

2. flamebait

deliberately mingling a women's right to choose with being a libertarian in all aspects derails the ability of women to discuss having basic medical care. We need to be able to discuss it, just as gays and lesbians need to be able to discuss marriage equality without having conversations derails and arguments thrown off course by straight people who want to argue about smoking rights.

Either fight for our rights or shut up about our reproductive decisions. Please stop using my uterus as a political pawn in whatever other issues you are concerned about.

I know you don't understand why it's offensive; I think you've attempted several threads like this if I remember right. Anytime a person with privilege is taking advantage of the struggles of an oppressed person - not to support the oppressed person, but to use them as a pawn to get yet more privileges ... they should be stopping to think about what the implications of that.

[LeftyMom]

3. Jesus Tittyfucking Christ.

Get off the cross, we need the wood. :eyes:

[RC]

13. LOL

:thumbsup:

[Mythsaje]

4. I've said it before and I'll say it again

there is a frightening number of posters here who don't give a fuck about "freedom" or "choice" unless it's their own ox being gored. THEN it's important. I daresay ALL freedom and choice is important, not just the ones that affect me personally. But I'm weird that way.

edited for grammar

[leftofcool]

5. Because even some Democrats and Liberals are Pro Life?

[lynne]

7. Bingo! And we have a winner !

I'm constantly amazed that some don't understand that not all liberals believe in the very exact same things. We are all free thinking individuals who arrive here with varied opinions and experiences - not clones of each other.

[Horse with no Name]

15. pro-life is a misnomer

it is ANTI-CHOICE

[uppityperson]

19. I'd say most all Democrats and Liberals are Pro Life.

Most are not anti-choice regarding hygienic legal abortion accessibility though

[frog92969]

6. Because the repug party is dying

and the rats are jumping ship.

[sellitman]

8. Bingo...The Real Winner!

Closet Repiggies are all they are.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

12. Bingo, we have a real loser pushing an agenda with this thread

I am strongly pro choice, but I know other liberals who truly believe that life begins at conception. Their level of liberalism makes yours look like Bill O'Loofah. Their objections are truly held, moral, and sincere. They also oppose war, death penalty, and other death generators (their term). They are truly pro-life, and are a good deal more progressive than most of us here.

Opposition to abortion does not mean always mean repuke.

[frog92969]

14. Pro-life liberals don't have abortions

Anti-choice liberals don't exist because that's an authoritarian position.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

18. That is about the same as saying anti death penalty liberals should not get condemned to death

There are a small number of seriously liberal and progressive folk who believe that life begins at conception. They are pro-life in all respects. They oppose abortion on the same moral grounds they oppose war and the death penalty. They don't blow up clinics or shoot doctors, but they do oppose abortion and will sometimes even protest against it.

Its not my opinion but I respect theirs and the integrity that they have.

"Liberals" as much as the repukes have elements that are indeed authoritarian and some here at DU are quite doctrinaire (and get truly worked up about it at times). IMO, its part of the human condition and not related to ones politics. Poking at them is amusing but often not sporting.

[frog92969]

20. apples and oranges - right and punishment

It's true that liberals believe in a wide range of things,
but above all that we shouldn't force our neighbors to conform to our beliefs.

For example I'm pro-DP, but I won't fight for it, and would never fight against it.
I would fight to make sure it's done humanely, and for just cause.

You might be thinking of "Third Way" Democrats, the ones that brought us gun bans.
Not of liberal origin, they talk populous but practice fascism.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

21. Unfortunately I see more and more 3rd Way Dems

here and elsewhere. At one point I was declared by a local party chair as unfit to be a Democrat and that I should resign from the party because I supported personal ownership of firearms

[frog92969]

22. I think your party chair had it backwards...

and the Democratic party is unfit to have us.

While we're cheering the demise of the repug party one party rule is being firmly established,
and it's a center right party.
The Greens are waiting to fill that void on the left, every day I wonder why I'm still here.

[HamdenRice]

9. Because, comrade, we don't have a central committee setting the "correct" political "line"

Or would you prefer that we did?

[readmoreoften]

16. Well, you and others do try. /nt

[lostnfound]

10. I was once 'anti-choice'

After 11 years of Catholic schooling, I was pretty indoctrinated and accepted the idea that it was all about some kind of responsibility to protect life. "Consistent life ethic" they taught us in my liberal Catholic school. No war, no death penalty, no abortion, no euthanasia. Work to eliminate poverty. They brought in Maryknoll sisters. They taught us about the horrors of Hiroshima and of the Holocaust. They also taught the church's position on abortion. As a child, when I learned that my parents' beloved Democratic party -- the party that stood against the war with Humphrey, wasn't it? the party that stood with the poor? and was right on basically 'every other issue'? -- was the one that supported the right to an abortion, I literally thought it was a cruel joke. I was deeply shocked.

I stayed a Democrat, OF COURSE, but always had it as an inconsistency in my own worldview.

More than 30 years later, it is DU that has caused a C-change in my own mind. Believe it or not, especially even in the last couple of weeks, in reading the numerous posts that people have written about tragic circumstances necessitating 'late-term' abortions. I have been shocked to read that women with the most appalling critical situations can't find a doctor who can take care of them.

It may be hard for some to accept that it took me so long..but don't underestimate the lasting impact of such intense indoctrination as a child.

A couple of books have had an influence on me, but it is your stories -- DU's stories -- that have really made the difference.

[superduperfarleft]

11. Pseudo-libertarian garbage.

How many times have people explained to you that your choices sometimes impact others, giving them a right to voice their opinions about it.

You know this isn't about abortion, and it's dishonest of you to try to frame it this way.

[harry_pothead]

17. Because Liberalism is different from Conservatism, and DU is not FR

Or more specifically, we don't suppress legitimate debate by fiat.

[Fading Captain]

23. Wait. Did you just talk about freedom? And then demand speech be banned?

Hah.

[Raine]

24. Because this is the Democratic Underground not

a Pro-Choice forum. I understand your point but as I said this is about Democrats and Democrats are sometimes anti-choice. x(