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April 19, 2007

Quirky & Pro-Life

As quirky as this is, you might enjoy reading the whole article by comedian Julia Gorin in the Wall Street Journal. She tells us why "embryos are cooler than kids." An excerpt from near the end:

Feminists heralded the proliferation of abortion as a tool by which to "empower" women and give them control over their lives and destinies. But power is being pregnant. Because it gives you control over other people's lives. Embryos and fetuses get you treated like royalty. Not only do people cede the right of way to you; not only do people in line at the ladies' room let you get in front of them; but if the man who impregnated you sticks around for just a few more months, you get to lie on the couch all day and just point to things, and they magically come to you.

The rest of it is one of the oddest pro-life arguments I've ever read.

Posted by James M. Kushiner at 10:36 AM | Permalink

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Comments

I don't think it's so much a pro-life argument, as someone trying to be witty. It doesn't quite make it though. Good humor is so hard to find...for some reason, absurdity mixed with shock is somehow supposed to be funny these days.

No thanks.

Posted by: J.M. | Apr 19, 2007 5:09:23 PM

If this is what passes for humor these days, I think I'll stick with being grumpy.

Posted by: Bill R | Apr 19, 2007 5:27:36 PM

Julia Gorin is a stand-up comedian, and maybe it doesn't translate well. But note the part about her personal story. Here's a piece by her that isn't at all funny or quirky, but it is gripping: Born in the USSR.

Posted by: Judy Warner | Apr 19, 2007 5:42:52 PM

"Here's a piece by her that isn't at all funny or quirky, but it is gripping:..."

Gripping indeed. She should stick with drama. These words ought to strick terror into everyone's heart: "Free health care, anyone?"

Posted by: Bill R | Apr 19, 2007 6:20:14 PM

I'm grateful for it. Would that there were a thousand irreverent silly lefty pro-life articles saturating the media.

Posted by: Wonders for Oyarsa | Apr 19, 2007 7:58:13 PM

While I agree her witicism may be numbing down the gravity of the situation (baby-killing), she is using the language of the pro-choice crowd. Towards the end she drives the point home:

Children who have been born have plenty of defenders, advocates, protective laws and folks who love kids; they're universally recognized as human beings and get all the attendant protections, including a mother's self-restraint even at the most trying times.
For any pregnant woman who is sitting on the fence of whether she should bring the pregnancy to term or seek an abortion, this is a great reminder that there are people ready, willing, able and eager to care for babies. I may not like her term for an unborn baby (critter), but she passionately defends the unborn:
Their [child's] right to life isn't in dispute. But these other, utterly defenseless critters are under daily threat of slaughter. The way I see it, the "mass of cells" has a human soul in there. (Of course, once it's out, then I don't know what it is aside from a pain in the butt that you'd better keep out of my way.)
She may not love kids but she loves the unborn, a message worth sharing even if her humor is somewhat clumsy.

Posted by: Marc V | Apr 20, 2007 8:32:33 AM

I thought Gorin wrote a good piece. And I think the humor was necessary to her point. After all, without a soft, cushy couch of humor, very few people would listen to her saying, "Nine months won't ruin your life." Nor would they accept her taking the abortion issue personally. They'd write her off as someone who takes herself too seriously, except that her obvious sense of humor has disarmed certain objections.

Posted by: Kate B. | Apr 20, 2007 8:33:01 AM

While I'm not fond of her use of the "scientific" terms for the unborn, I do like her approach. People, especially the young, have forgotten, or never known, what children actually are. They're so used to the "it's just a fetus" line of reasoning that they can't even imagine what a child is actually like. Humor, however, is something they can understand. Joking about the perks of pregnancy (I got breakfast in bed every day :-)) will, at least in some cases, get them thinking about the process and, eventually babies.

I've found it interesting to be a new mom while attending school full time. I bring my 5 month old daughter to school with me every day. We're surrounded by young people who firmly believe that the unborn are blobs and the newly born are not much better (at least, that's what they say). Their reaction to my daughter, however, is not the reaction you'd have to a near-blob. She has quite the fan club, and I hope that at least some of the kids rethink their positions after encountering a real baby.

Posted by: RMC | Apr 20, 2007 12:00:25 PM

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