Two wrongs don't make a right, my response to an article by Rachel Cox (LifeSiteNews.com)

Rachel Cox, wrote an article on a website called LifeSiteNews.com titled "My body, my choice: So what about the choice to have a large family?" I ran across it on Facebook yesterday, and as I read the first paragraph I was shocked, I thought I'd found a valid complaint about the secular community from the religious right. I was right, however, Rachel quickly tossed any and all credibility out the window when she launched into a propaganda laden tirade about this fairy tale "abortion industry" Christians rail on about all the time.

Having said that, I am shocked and disgusted by the responses the author cited, directed towards the Duggars. There is no excuse for heaping that kind of abuse on this family. However, as we all know by now, the internet is a “special place" where people can say whatever they want, anonymously, and so… they do. I checked the original article out for myself, and scrolled through the comments/responses. There were a lot of ignorant, asinine comments, but to say “it was very challenging to find any positive comments at all", is not true. There were plenty of encouraging, or in some cases sympathetic remarks. Anyway, the point is, the author made a valid point, people are jerks, people hiding behind anonymous screen names on the internet are colossal jerks.

Her second point, regarding the hypocrisy of the folks who don’t consider both sides of the coin when it comes to the “my body my choice" assertion is also valid. It is ridiculous to assert that a woman can/should be able to choose to have an abortion and then turn around and villainize her for choosing to have a large family, or no family, etc. 

However, her argument devolves quickly after that… while I agree that the comments about the Duggar ladies are sexist; so is trying to legislate what choices women do/don’t have regarding their bodies, and limiting their access to healthcare. That assertion was just as hypocritical and biased as the ones made by the folks she’s calling out for being hypocritical and biased.

Her arguments goes MUCH further downhill when she starts making comments like “Since the 70’s, the abortion industry has drilled into our culture that it’s not only okay to limit your children by having them killed before they’re born, but expected. They've preached that the only way women can be truly free is if they can get abortions. They've touted abortion as an integral tool of family planning that should be utilized on-demand." That kind of propaganda is utter nonsense. Those statements are not only false, but they’re nothing more than an attempt to evoke an emotional response, rather than a rational one. No one in the “abortion industry" aka, the health care industry has “drilled" the idea that abortion is a good family planning option. The message is, and has always been birth control first and safe sex, to assert that it’s “expected" that women have abortions is preposterous! Neither has anyone “preached" that abortion and “true freedom" for women are synonymous. Abortions should be an option for many, many reasons, the least of those reasons is family planning, and you’d be hard pressed to find any respectable doctor, clinic or organization that provides abortions touting them as such.

In the end the author is just as big of a hypocrite as the folks she was criticizing. She resorted to ad hominem, demonizing the healthcare providers, she mischaracterized the “abortion industry" (not an actual thing…) and she made false, inflammatory, accusatory statements that have no basis in reality. She should have quit while she was ahead, or just stuck to the facts.


Click here to see the original article on LifeSiteNews.