Stop The War: 10 Week Abortion
August 31, 2006
Someone may look at the title of this post and say: What on earth does that mean? That’s the same question I asked myself yesterday when I was walking to my next class in the early afternoon and I looked up into the sky.
Missoula residents have been treated to a couple of days of this confusing slogan, in fact. There is what I can only describe as a crop dusting plane (based on my complete lack of knowledge when it comes to aircraft of all kinds) flying around Missoula with a massive banner attached to the back of it. Now, the words “STOP THE WAR” are in very large letters, no doubt designed to get the attention of us radical lefties on the Missoula campus. When you look closer, you see the rest of the slogan along with a phone number.
Once I saw the slogan, I took a closer look at the picture that was right by the wording. I thought to myself: those can’t be aborted baby parts, are they? Sure enough, I was right. So what did I do? Well dammit, I called the number. Surely there had to be some purpose to this banner. They had to be actually trying to accomplish something, right?
When I called the number, I was greeted with a pleasant, professional sounding recorded woman’s voice. It explained that the “aborted baby billboard program” was part of a nationwide campaign by the Center for Bioethical Reform. I decided to hear the recorded lady out. I wanted to give her a chance.
Immediately it was clear that this group isn’t actually trying to accomplish anything. They are not interested in changing anyone’s minds, they are interested in getting their message across in all of its moral superiority. In this recorded message, she lambasts those who are in favor of “butchering” babies, and compares her movement to the civil rights movement. At no point does she try and make any kind of reasonable, fact-based argument against abortion rights.
Personally, I was not moved. My defenses went up automatically. I imagine every single caller had the same reaction.
Now I’m a big fan of free speech, but I’m also free to get pissed off when people use that free speech to parade their higher moral purpose from a banner in the sky. This banner does not say “join us” or “open your heart to us,” it says “fuck those of you who disagree. We are better.”
What’s the point?
September 1, 2006 at 2:48 am
I’ve been thinkg about this post and am going to purpose an idea. They’re not so different from us, if clearly more extreme. hear me out. Even if this anti-abortion group were more moderate, would you actually change your mind about abortion? I doubt it, you’ve already made up your mind like they’ve made up thiers. They would read what you just wrote and say, he’s not creating an open space for debate either, he’s just offending us (tho I fully agree with you that there’s space for critique in their methods).
They think abortion is murder. End of debate. Life and death are never light topics. They feel so strongly that abortion is wrong they can’t imagine why other people don’t agree. Don’t you feel that way about say, the war in Iraq or Palestine? Personally, I feel what’s going on in those countries is so wrong and evil I can’t undestand anyone who doesn’t agree. Those in the anti-abortion group aren’t going to change their minds and suddenly think, oh, well, I guess it isn’t that bad, any more than I’m going to think, “well, I guess things aren’t that bad in Palestine, we might as well continue to fund the Israeli army.”
The point is that everyone has chosen their side concerning abortion so this grouop figured moving on to something more extreme just might work. It probably will convince some people to think abortion needs to be illegal. (Just like if the anti-war movement were to get more radical, it would probably change someone’s mind tho I’m not suggesting we start renting planes.)
But since everyone’s emotions are running high on this issue, we should just ignore them since no one is really looking for a calm discussion in the first place.
September 1, 2006 at 9:39 pm
Laura-
It was my intent to put a paragraph in this post about what an emotional topic abortion is, and how hard it is to change people’s minds. This is a topic I usually avoid, as it is the most polarizing undebatable issue on the plate of American Politics today.
I usually don’t have a problem with people taking extreme positions regarding any issue. Certainly mine and Mark’s views concerning Israel are seen as extreme in contemporary American politics.
My problem with these people is their advertising campaign consists of chastising those who disagree with them, and not much more. Their goal isn’t to change people’s minds, because that is not at all what they’re trying to do. They just want to feel good about themselves.
That’s all I was saying. Yeesh.
September 1, 2006 at 9:47 pm
yeesh right back at you. I was trying to point at that you’re chastising them too, just like they are chasting you.
and their goal is to change people’s minds otherwise they wouldn’t do it. The sad part is that the elected to try to change your mind from a lofty position.
god, I hate when people take lofty positions.
September 2, 2006 at 1:34 pm
[...] Notorious T, Steve, figures out the deal behind that annoying plane circling above Missoula the past two-three days. [...]
September 2, 2006 at 2:36 pm
what’s the phone number? I want to hear it
September 2, 2006 at 4:31 pm
I am not a fan of censorship but the only gut reaction I had to this was the fact that they were parading a “real” picture of a “real” aborted baby in all it’s goriness in front of children. If I was a kid and had seen that I would have had nightmares for weeks.
September 2, 2006 at 10:39 pm
the number:
1-888-234-9292
Montana Fem- They do respond to that criticism in the recorded message too. It sounds like they must have gotten that criticism a lot.
September 5, 2006 at 8:51 pm
I am a father of a 3 1/2 almost 4 year old son. We live in Billings, MT and yes, we have a plane here as well. Fortunately, my son was fixated on planes and paid no attention to the banner. I fear the day that I am going to have to attempt to explain what those pictures are. A couple of years ago, (I assume it was the same group) there were several people scattered around town wearing billboards with similar pictures. My son was not old enough at that time to make sence of any of it. I would like to see the group reform their campaigne to something positive to get their message across. I am pro-choice. I choose to complete all the pregnancies I cause and I will teach my children to own up to their responsibilities but I can’t make that decision for anyone else. “Stop The War” only makes me want to protest against anti-abortion groups.
A. Father
September 7, 2006 at 9:12 pm
Here’s a suggestion –
If you are offended by people shoving shocking pictures in your face, then do it right back to them!
Call up their 800 number, get website, street, and email addresses for their organization. Send some shocking pictures right back to them.
I would recommend internet classics like Goatse, Tub Girl, and Lemon Party.
(If you don’t know what these are, look them up in Wikipedia – but prepare to be offended…)
It’s not the end of the argument, but it would go aways toward showing them what effect they are having on Montanans.
September 19, 2006 at 2:17 pm
Oh the left sure loves free speech when it favors them, It works both ways….. the truth hurts
September 19, 2006 at 4:36 pm
Buck-
I always love it when people accuse people who disagree with their point of view of being against their freedom of expression. It’s a tactic that has no place in any kind of real debate.
So, you’ll have to point to the part of my post where I said that these people shouldn’t be allowed the same right to free speech that I am.
Until you do that, you’re not to be taken seriously.
September 21, 2006 at 4:30 pm
Buck,
The truth is that those who believe it is wrong to abort an unwanted fetus say that it is wrong to kill an inocent child.
But they do make exceptions in cases of incest and rape. That must mean that a baby that is the result of either is not inocent, and therefore undeserving of protection.
November 5, 2008 at 1:18 am
Something similar was flying around Tallahassee, Florida yesterday. When I went to vote, right over my head there was a small aircraft carrying a banner that said something like “Abortion at 10 Weeks” and a phone number. There was also a picture. My eyes are very good but what I seen resembled a squid. I was very confused. I started laughing–I couldn’t understand what the plane was advertising. Was it, “Call this number and you can get an abortion–Even if you’re at 10 weeks!” I assumed the squid was a mass of fetus parts and I knew that the banner was advertising a phone number that would give you a pro-life message.
Now why on voting day? Because they knew there’d be a lot of liberals out?
I have been back and forth on the issue of abortion. But even in my “against” times, I’ve hated the vulgar ads, misleading clinics. Like PETA (And I’m an animal rights activist), no, worse, they fail with their crazy rants and bizarre methods and lose respectability.
Those trucks I’ve seen with GIANT photos of aborted fetuses have done nothing but disgust me, I feel more disgusted with those driving than with the message.
What if I just seen this sort of image after I just had a miscarriage?
Both liberals and conservatives employ similar tactics. They are using strong images in defending what they both feel is morally right to fight against. But these tactics don’t earn my support. I feel it is as you say–it feels nothing like “Join us”. It just says, “Look at this–You’re terrible for wanting this!”