Jamie Crawford, CNN Political Ticker, reported that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee likened abortions in America to the holocaust. His exact words were, “Sometimes we talk about why we’re importing so many people in our workforce. It might be for the last 35 years, we have aborted more than a million people who would have been in our workforce had we not had the holocaust of liberalized abortion under a flawed Supreme Court ruling in 1973.”
As I have written time and again, conservative right wing republicans cannot argue with logic so they bring on the barrage of verbal nastiness. Almost everyone agrees that the holocaust was a horrible thing so equating whatever it is that they don’t agree with with either Nazi’s or the holocaust itself is a surefire way to rile up their followers. The other word that they have managed to manipulate to conjure up images of death, torment, and horror is liberal. Notice that he doesn’t just say abortion it’s “liberalized” abortion.
These semantic games that they are playing have been highly tuned to strike just the right chord in their close minded base. It doesn’t matter that logically the holocaust and legalized abortion have nothing in common or that “liberal” means “favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, esp. as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties.”
Huckabee also pulled out another verbal weapon from his arsenal “God”. In the same speech he stated “I’m very tired of hearing people who are unwilling to change the constitution, but seem more than willing to change the holy word of God as it relates to the definition of marriage.”
This statement is, to me, the embodiment of what is wrong with the Religious Right. He makes it clear that he believes political decisions should be guided by religious beliefs, effectively throwing the separation of church and state right out of the window. He said this while speaking to the crowd about the necessity of conservative lawmakers to pressure for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
To sum up Huckabee’s apparent platform: The Christian conservatives’ idea of God and his wishes will decide the laws and anyone who disagrees are liberalized nazi’s. Nice.
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2007-10-21 19:23:33
Aborting babies is horrific and it is murder. The more correct figure for the number of abortions is 1.3 million a year, since the 1973 Roe vs Wade ruling. That number is staggering in mind. So I think it is appropriate to use a word like ‘holocaust’ to describe such a shockingly, large number of intentional deaths.
Huckabee is defending the innocent, while Hillary is speaking about women’s rights, which translates to more baby deaths. I find it hard to defend her position on children and especially unborn children. I see Huckabee’s position as tolerant, and life-affirming.
2007-10-21 19:38:31
Science, medicine, and our law says that abortion is a medical procedure and not “murder”. Just because you define a fetus as a person does not make it so.
Almost all democrats have the same stance on abortion which is that it should be legal, safe, and rare. It has been shown that making abortions illegal does not cut down on the rates of abortions but does endanger significantly more lives.
I think it is arrogant of anyone to make the case that a woman cannot decide for herself what to do with her body. It is something that certainly should be decided on by a woman and her doctor.
If we suspend reality for a moment and say that outlawing abortions will end them(Remember it won’t even decrease them.) what do you think will happen to all of the unwanted babies that are born to mothers who are not able to provide for them?
Oftentimes Christians (not implying you) make the case that if a woman chooses to have unprotected sex she has to live with the consequences. Is that all a child is to them? A punishment for someone making a mistake that almost all of us have? What sort of life does that “consequence” then have to look forward to?
2007-10-21 19:49:17
A picture is worth a thousand words. So I hope this quick-reference web-page helps define the terms of the debate. This reference lists fetal development facts and is accompanied by in utero pictures of the baby. http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/f.....pment.html
2007-10-21 20:01:50
I do know the gestation process, I am not blindly following the words of others. I believe after lots of personal reflection that women have the right to control their bodies. Until the baby is born, it is a part of the mother. As I said, science, medicine, and the law recognize abortion as a medical procedure, not murder.
That isn’t what is in debate at all, it is already an established medical procedure. The only thing up for debate now if whether or not right wing christian conservatives can once again push their views into law.
I can certainly understand why someone would be opposed to abortion, it is a topic that is deeply emotional and at times horrific. That does not change the fact that a woman does not lose her rights when she becomes pregnant.
I ask, again, if there were no abortions what happens to all of the unwanted children?
2008-01-16 18:17:45
I think you are so wrong because children are a gift from GOD and we are suppose to protect them from harm. Those pictures are so bad that it made me cry. If women can’t take care of them than they can give them to people who would love them. There is a lot of couples that can’t have kids that want them
2008-01-16 18:29:34
And I think you are so naive. There are millions of unwanted children in the world already, who takes care of them? Don’t fool yourself into thinking that adoption is an actual viable answer to unwanted pregnancy. It is in some cases but not all.
2008-02-01 13:18:40
I know that this is an old comment thread but I had something else that I wanted to say. If your god is giving babies away as gifts he really has a lot of issues. Shouldn’t there be some sort of screening process? What about the crackhead with 7 kids does she really need another “gift”?
2007-10-22 05:54:21
it is funny that it is only a fetus (otherwise it’s a baby) or “medical procedure,” when someone wants to try to ease the pain and guilt of what it really is. Murdering and unborn baby who cannot speak for itself.
2007-10-22 08:06:21
You’re comment is illogical. It is always a fetus and a medical procedure when you are talking about abortion. It’s defined that way by science, medicine, and the law.
2007-10-22 17:58:41
illogical? It is only called a fetus when someone is aborting as both of us said. It is a baby when the same people want to keep the child.
My point is that it is always a baby…but people who want to ease the pain and guilt of terminating an unborn child, call it a fetus in an effort to dehumanize the child.
2007-10-22 08:25:38
Why is it only murder (otherwise it’s a medical procedure) when someone wants to take away a woman’s right to control her own body?
2007-10-22 17:55:56
her own body? Her body is not what is being terminated? It is the body of the baby.
2008-01-16 18:32:03
Women who have sex willing they shouldn’t if they don’t want kids they have to take responsabilty for what they do. kids don’t ask for women to spread there legs and get pregnant
2008-01-16 18:36:35
You’re right, that would be weird. I’m sure that children would much rather be born into a family that didn’t want them, be abused or neglected, or who knows what else just so their mother could be properly punished for having sex. Hmmmm, kids as a punishment, doesn’t make much sense to me.
2007-10-22 18:05:51
Really…are listening to yourself? People used to use the same argument against African-Americans. Back then the law said that if you were not white then you were not fully human.
The point is just because the law and supposed science says one thing, does not make them right. In fact, there is much science to support protecting the life of the unborn.
I don’t know about you but I tend to always side with being a voice for those who can not speak for their selves. Whether it be those in the Sudan, the invalid, the unborn or whatever. Those who need someone to speak for them, is who I support.
2007-10-22 18:17:33
Great I have some wonderful opportunities for you to join in to further the cause of gay rights. When should I expect you to add your voice to ours?
We will never agree on this issue most probably. I would like an answer to my question, what would you propose should be done with the millions of unwanted children if making abortion illegal worked (it won’t) and people had to keep every conceived fetus?
2007-10-23 08:15:40
hmmm, sounds like you would support my position. If a parent could tell if there child was homsexual in the embryo, with legal abortions they could decide to terminate (murder) the unborn “gay” child.
2007-10-23 08:24:35
So your position is that abortion is ok to get rid of gay babies?
2008-01-03 16:33:24
alright well lets see. you say that abortions are murder right.. well hmm are you going to take care of all these babies sweet heart? When women are raped and they become pregnant are you going to make them wake up every day and see that child and think of what happened to them, would that make you sleep better at night.
When teens are not financially stable or responsible to raise a child you want them to keep it? that makes sense, so that way the child isnt given the opportunity of great potential by society, they will have born into poverty and society will close their eyes.
although i think adoption is a very good option i think abortion should be an option left to the women.
I hate when i see Pro-life people outside of the abortion clinics on tv or anywhere.. does anybody tell them that they dont have the riht to be standing out there expressing how they feel. no, they have the freedom of assembly, freedom of petion, and freedom of speech no one takes that away from them therefor i beleive we should not take away the right for a women to choose what she wants to do.
According to our state laws a fetus is not even considered a citizen until the take their first breath of air… inside the womb a fetus never takes in air, so according to the law it is not murder.
So I think before you speak you need to think of the right that enables you to do that.. what would you do if someone took away your right to choose what you could say..
2007-10-22 18:16:11
At week 17 the baby can dream (REM sleep). At week 19 the baby in the mother’s womb looks like this —————- http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/f.....by5mos.jpg
Babies born prematurely at weeks 21 and 22 are routinely saved. These little babies are real, living persons. I can see it with my own eyes. Thanks.
2007-10-22 19:39:49
Here’s a little comic strip I stumbled onto this evening. While short it concisely states some of the hypocrisies in the Christian stance on abortion coming from the bible. http://www.jesusandmo.net/2007/10/22/women/
2007-10-25 14:16:42
Hi Summer,
It’s actually odd that I ran across this website as I was procrastinating studying for a class but I just had to respond to some of the comments being made. I am 19 years old, and I am a senior in college at an extremely liberal university. I don’t care whether you are a devout Catholic, hell fire and brimstone baptist, or agnostic. I am none of these, but I believe abortion is wrong. Why? Well, let me make it personal. Doctors told my parents to abort me because they thought I would have Down’s Syndrome. I don’t. Mental illness is not an excuse to abort a fetus, baby, or whatever you want to call it. Where do we put all the millions of unwanted children if we don’t abort them? Have you ever met a couple who can’t have children who want them so badly? There are millions, yes millions of couples waiting to adopt babies. This is what you do with the so called “unwanted” fetuses. I don’t want to offend you, I just like to argue my opinion; thank you for giving me the opportunity to do so.
2007-10-25 14:30:47
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for your comment. Actually I am a person who is not able to have children and it is extremely painful. However, I am also intimately involved with foster and adoptive care systems and know that there are millions of children who will never be adopted. They will be pushed around from one home or group home to another and most of them will be abused along the way.
Most couples who can’t have kids of their own still want that perfect child that other parents want or have they do not want the baby of a crack addict. The demand in America for children of any color besides white is low.
Then there are parents who would keep the child even if it was not the right choice for them. These children would grow up knowing they were unwanted and often the victims of abuse or neglect.
The main argument I have against making abortion illegal is that it will not have an impact at all on the number performed. All it will do is ensure that women seek medical care from quacks and underground “clinics” where they will be injured and even killed.
I understand that abortion is an extremely sensitive topic and one that required a lot of soul searching on my part. It took a long time for me to not begrudge other women their choices since I didn’t have a choice in my personal life.
Thank you again for your comments.
Summer
2007-12-10 10:18:20
As far as abortion goes, there is evidence on both sides of the scientific spectrum to support the idea that the fetus is ‘alive’. In fact I doubt anyone would say the fetus isn’t alive, rather, that the fetus does not have the rights of a born child or a human being who is living, breathing, etc. What disgusts me is that conservatives try to use arguments which are either A) on a religious basis, something that has no argumentative value in government, B) an appeal to emotion, which is also not permissible in court but is used anyway.
It might be worth noting that approximately 70% of conceptions are spontaneously aborted. Somehow I doubt life begins at conception if that many “dead babies” are piling up in women’s periods. Also I honestly doubt people support abortion following the first trimester, so the whole bullshit of “partial birth” abortions and such only irritates me further because it’s a non-argument.
2008-04-27 11:20:31
Some of these comments I find quite shocking, and totally naive. So, women shouldn’t spread their legs. Where is the responsibility of the man in all of this? Perhaps men should abstain from sex if they don’t want children. Maybe antiabortionist would manage to convince men or their responsibility in all of thes. Most of these comments, shockingly are from women, who seem to think it is the woman who is solely the one to blame.
I, have been lucky enough never to be put in the position of having to make the choice of having an abortion. But like Summer Ludwig, I agree that it is better to have a wanted child than to have a child born unwanted and subject to abuse. If children are a gift from GOd, I would barely be able to recognise that fact, from the horrific treatment that some living children receive. And for most women, it is not an easy choice.