Pro-life is a distortion? Are you telling me that those who choose the label ‘pro-life’ are not accurately in favor of life? And let me ask here, how many of the pro-choice crowd have said at least once in a recent discussion about abortion that those who oppose it are somehow opposed to women (i.e. War on Women, want to keep women in the kitchen, etc.)? Is that not a distortion?
If you say you are pro-life, and you care about more than ridding the world of abortions, I believe you. But I never hear about solutions from the vocal side of the pro-life argument. All I hear is “ban all abortions” and I hear nothing about what comes next. Those are the people who are distorting the term “pro-life” when it really just means “anti-abortion.”
As for pro-life being a rightwing distortion, I don’t necessarily see how. It’s technically accurate.
The right does not support life as much as they are against abortion. Hence anti-abortion being more accurate.
Here’s another example - Republicans (in general) favor tax breaks that favor the rich while pulling government support from the poor. They care about making sure a fetus comes to term, but then don’t care at all what happens after it is born. That’s not pro-life either, that’s anti-abortion.
Is that not an oversimplification? Is there really this belief that Republicans are just out to punish the poor? Even if you oppose fiscal conservatism, it seems wrong to me to ascribe motives like not caring how the child fares after birth. I am more moderate than most conservatives and favor more social programs than your average Republican, but nevertheless, are you not generalizing that most who oppose abortion and favor individuals and families taking more personal responsibility for their economic well-being are really “not caring” about how the child does after birth?
Sure, I’m generalizing, but you said it yourself - you favor more social programs than average Republicans. The Republican/Conservative motto, and correct me if I’m wrong, is as limited a government as possible. People who are truly pro-life should want to limit unwanted births as much as possible (including sex-ed and contraception, not just abstinence only) and should be as passionate (if not more so) about helping the needy as stopping abortion. Do they only want to stop the poor single raped mother from having an abortion, or do they also want to help her after she gives birth?
I thought that if a group chooses to identify by a certain term, that is their right to choose. I am pro-life. Most conservatives, even the overzealous Evangelical brand, care a great deal about people from conception until death. I’ve seen stereotypes in this thread about how every conservative belief is motivated by sexism or racism or socioeconomic superiority. Most of them are good people who think they are doing what is best for the general populace. I get just as irritated at them when I hear stupid generalizations about liberals.
Perhaps I’m wrong, but all I hear overzealous Evangelical brand of conservatives doing is trying to end every single abortion regardless of impact or context, and putting way more emphasis on that then what to do with all the unwanted babies.