I haven’t written about the abortion tweeter, Angie Jackson, yet. I’ve been thinking about it. I’ve watched the video a couple of times and let it simmer. It bothered me, but really, what’s so different about her than the writers at just about any feminist blog out there? What’s so different about her than, say, Gloria Steinem in this shirt:
Frankly, Angie is acting in typical behavior for a liberal. Liberals love to talk about “risky” or “taboo” things, and then pat themselves on the back for being courageous. This is basically the exact same thing. She says she isn’t doing it for a publicity stunt? She’s doing it to “de-mystify” abortion? Please. She wants attention, pure and simple. Some women may indeed be scared to have abortions, but watching Angie Jackson talk about having one isn’t exactly going to lead scared women to a moment of pure enlightenment and relief. This is another typical feature of liberalism. Their narcissism leads them to think that everything they do inspires someone, or encourages someone, or is somehow meaningful or special. In real life, it isn’t. No one cares about Angie Jackson, and they wouldn’t even know she existed were it not for this controversy she created.
But before I get into my other thoughts, let’s watch the videos. First, here’s the actual abortion video:
Now, here’s Angie talking more about her decision on CNN:
IF she is being honest about her medical situation, then I certainly feel sympathy for her. What an awful choice for a woman to make — to choose between your life or your unborn child’s. What bothers me isn’t even so much the choice she made. What bothers me is how cold she is about it. She says, over and over again, that she isn’t sorry, that it’s not that bad, that it’s not scary, that it’s OK, blah blah blah. She even said that it’s just like having a miscarriage. And here’s where I got angry. I’m going to explain why now, and in doing so, I’m going to confess to something that only a select few people in my life know about.
I had a miscarriage several years ago. I was not married, although I was engaged. Our engagement did not work out, and we didn’t get engaged because I was pregnant. We didn’t even know until after we already were engaged. I miscarried, and I was devastated. Absolutely crushed. Nick and I were young, our relationship was shaky, and we certainly didn’t have a lot of money. We weren’t planning on having kids right away, but the accidental pregnancy changed everything. I was still happy and excited, even though it wasn’t at the right time at all. It wasn’t what I expected, but I was going to be a mommy, and I had a baby growing inside me. Losing that baby was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to endure. I kept it a secret from everyone but my ex-fiance for a long time — I’m not really sure why, but I didn’t want anyone to know.
And that’s why Angie’s cavalier position on abortion, and miscarriages, made me so angry and upset. Almost every female friend I know has had at least one miscarriage as well, and every single female friend I know that has had a miscarriage was just as devastated as I was. It was horrible, heartbreaking, yet Angie is sitting there saying abortion “isn’t that bad… just like a miscarriage”?? I can understand that she made the choice she felt she had to make. But was there no sadness? No sorrow at the loss of the child she might have had? No anger at the injustice of it? She just killed her child, and that’s that, no big deal, just like having a miscarriage? I just don’t see how someone can make such a heart-wrenching decision, choosing between their life or their unborn baby’s, and do it with absolutely no heartache or hurt or sadness at all. I’ve known friends who have had abortions, too, and they grieve for their loss just as we who have miscarried babies do. If anything, I think they feel worse. Angie shrugs it off like she was throwing out some trash. And that is appalling to me, that is what I’m completely incapable of understanding. You would think that the decision to have an abortion would be one of the hardest decisions a woman would ever have to make. I am pro-life, and I find abortion a horrible, horrible atrocity. My heart still goes out to the women who think that they have no other choice and have to endure it. Yet Angie encourages women to just do it because “it’s not that bad”. How can someone be so cold?
I’ve got a newsflash for you, Angie. There are thousands upon thousands of women who miscarry and have abortions, and they don’t look at it like it’s no big deal. It’s not easy and simple for them. It breaks their heart; they weep and grieve and feel the loss of their child. I still do, and it is years later. I may have tons of children in years to come, but it will never make up for the fact that one is missing. One child that is supposed to be here isn’t. And whether that happens by miscarriage or abortion, many, many women feel the same way I do. Just because our children had not been born it doesn’t mean that we didn’t love them. Telling women that it will be OK, and that you’ll do it and be fine — just like cold-hearted, emotionless Angie — is wrong. It doesn’t help anyone. If anything, it could potentially hurt women. They’ll look at that video and think that it’s no big deal, and then later, feel like their entire world has come crashing down.
Making women think that abortion is no big deal, and comparing it to a miscarriage, does not do women any favors. Most women are not so cold and unfeeling. And there are plenty of feminists, plenty of abortion lobbyists, who would try to convince women that abortion is no big deal, just like Angie is trying to convince women.
Take it from me: losing your unborn child is a big deal. And women deserve to know the truth of how this will affect them emotionally. To tell them otherwise is just another lie by cold, heartless pro-choicers.
Cross-posted at The Green Room and Live Action.
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I, too, was struck by her callous insensitivity toward her unborn child. She insisted “It’s not so bad.” Well, maybe “it wasn’t so bad” for her, but for her unborn child, it couldn’t get any worse.
Angie commmented on this blog entry over on Live Action, FYI:
http://ow.ly/1fQW0
Thank you for sharing such a difficult time in your life.
Abortion, like a miscarriage? As a newborn in a wastebin is like a stillborn?
A good friend of mine had an abortion back when she was in college, 30 some years ago now. It effects her to the point of tears often. Tell her how easy it is. How its no big deal.
It took years of trying, many $$$’s and a real good doctor for my wife and I to have a baby. So many can’t conceive and must seek to adopt (I myself am adopted). An abortion is a slap in the face to those that would do next to anything to raise your child.
Correct me if I am wrong, but does she not say at 2:32 (the VERY end), “I hope everyone on YouTube has a great and Godless day”?
… and, she is obviously reading from WRITTEN talking points placed to her right (camera left). She keeps glancing and even staring at them to get her next cues.
Cassy,
Seems like Angie has the Amanda Marcotte abortion mentality in regards to the t-shirt):
http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/04/04/6999/
I was in full support of the “I had an abortion” T-shirt, because to me, it’s not complicated. The anti-choice movement tries like hell to erase women’s existence, or at least our individuality, and the T-shirt undermines that. It also clarifies that abortion is nothing to be ashamed of. For me, “I had an abortion” should be as morally loaded as “I had a Pap smear”. The underpinnings of the moral angst about abortion—the idea that a woman has no right to pry loose a flag a man has planted in her (even if he agrees with her decision, as most men in this case do), or that she should be punished for having sex—offend me to the core, and that many women go through anguish over getting abortions depresses me. They shouldn’t feel bad for having sex or having autonomy. In fact, they should be proud of themselves for taking care of themselves despite all the misogynist messages out there that women don’t have a right to take care of ourselves. People balked at the idea that the “I had an abortion” T-shirts smacked of that mortal female sin of pride, but I applaud it. Women should be proud of doing right by themselves in a world where that’s socially disavowed.
The whole idea of that despicable t-shirt came from Planned “Cover up Sexual Predators” Parenthood, which says alot about it as well:
http://www.ppaction.org/plannedparenthoodlam/notice-description.tcl?newsletter_id=2902061
Not every one of the millions of American women who’ve chosen abortion will wear an “I Had an Abortion” t-shirt. But the ones who do will send a powerful message that they will not live in silence and shame. We at Planned Parenthood applaud their honesty and courage.
“And there are plenty of feminists, plenty of abortion lobbyists, who would try to convince women that abortion is no big deal, just like Angie is trying to convince women.”
Precisely why the abortionist movement is at its heart, cold to the core to human existence.
My mistake: it was Gloria Steinem with the t-shirt, not Angie. But still same cold mentality.
I followed her tweets for a while during the process. I wish I would have noted when and what specifically she said about what she told her son about this ordeal. He apparently wondered why she was sick, and she told him something about the fetus making her sick.
My paraphrasing. I couldn’t read there anymore after two days because I felt like I was watching someone die very slowly.
She’s also happily unemployed and receiving unemployment payments. That was mentioned in her tweets at some point. She has a “DONATE” button on her blog. Hope she’s reporting everything!
This site kept up with the tweets, and summarized them well:
http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2010/02/live_tweeting_a_4.html
Take care!
And sorry to hear about your miscarriage!
“Women should be proud of doing right by themselves in a world where that’s socially disavowed.”
Doing right by killing another living being that has done absolutely nothing wrong except be conceived by the mothers choice to have sex.
Wow, what an enlightened view when ‘doing right by themselves’ means murder, and that is what it is. You may justify it any way that you want to but abortion kills a human life and to kill someone for any other reason than defending your own life is not only wrong, but evil.
Sure, I’m all for ‘choice’, but once you have unprotected sex, like pulling a trigger, that ‘choice’ has been made.
Abortion is a easy out to a preventable ‘problem’ for far too many… just another form of birthcontrol. But killing off your inconveniences can never be justified no matter how ‘easy’ it may be. It’s inhuman. It fosters the belief that we should be able to get around the consequences of any mistakes we make, and is one reason that we see the decay in humanity that we see today.
I like that shirt. Truth in advertising, if you will.
If a woman will throw her kids under the bus, she’ll throw me under the bus with even less fanfare.
Big Al,
We live in a culture that totally eschews responsibility in any form. Most take the easy way out. I don’t see anything particularly surprising about anything about this woman. In my opinion, a society that casually eats its young is one that won’t long endure. And quite frankly, we’re not. The West’s birthrate is much lower compared to the rest of the world. Sooner or later, we’ll run out of people to defend ourselves. Gee, I wonder who’s waiting in the wings to take over? Which religion that’s having oodles of kids right now and is hostile to the West and most of its ideas? I wonder…
Don’t worry Big Al. These “enchanting creatures” (Ace of Spades used this term for this woman…loved it) are simply screwing themselves over in the long term. Unfortunately, they’ll take the rest of us with them.
“Wow, what an enlightened view when ‘doing right by themselves’ means murder, and that is what it is. You may justify it any way that you want to but abortion kills a human life and to kill someone for any other reason than defending your own life is not only wrong, but evil.”
Bingo.
For this reason more than any other she needs prayers, not just for herself but for the sake of ourselves that these actions don’t coarsen us by the natural revulsion we feel
My wife had a miscarriage once. I have three beautiful children now, but I still occasionally think about the one we didn’t have. One little person that I never got to meet and hold.
But what the heck. It was just a useless bit of tissue, right?
Even if I didn’t believe in God, I’d believe in the Devil because some people are just plain evil.
First, to Cassy: my best to you. Miscarriages are horrible – and even worse because our society does not recognise that women whose bodies give life and sustenance to children feel tremendous pain when those children die, no matter how young.
As for this, um, woman: “Cold” doesn’t begin to cover it; I was going with “heartless, irresponsible, and freakishly selfish” for starters.
If you want to talk about actual courage in the face of a life-threatening pregnancy, talk about Pam Tebow.
If you want to talk about publicly flouting society’s norms for dealing with an unplanned, inconvenient pregnancy, talk about Sarah and Bristol Palin.
Angie’s “bravery” is the same “bravery” we see every time some East Side Manhattanite gets NEA funding and a write-up in the New York TImes for urinating on the Virgin Mary.
Pathetic.
DaTechGuy has much more grace than I ever will, but I’ll just go with this: I do wish that every one of the squishy pro-choicers would see this. We are accused of being heartless and about not caring about women and children. We are told that abortion is a tough choice, and no one but the woman can make it correctly. We are told that no one takes this lightly. I would love for Angie – the logical end point of the pro-choice movement – to be broadcast around America. Her callousness is a pro-life advertisement.
“If you want to talk about actual courage in the face of a life-threatening pregnancy, talk about Pam Tebow.”
I am a big fan of the Tebows. First as a Christian, second as a pro-lifer, and third, as a big time Florida Gators fan for years.
And it really riled me up the attacks folks like Gloria Allred, Amanda Marcotte, and many of their pro-choice allies in the media launch on the character of Pam Tebow accusing her of lying about the whole thing with the asinine (and pretty hypocritical) claim since that it must not take place since abortion is illegal in the Philippines. It is like since when did something being illegal, whether heinous to us or not, stop anyone, even at risk of jail? Not to mention the attackers of Pam are not being honest themselves- hundreds of thousands of abortions are done in that country, many done by doctors for illegal reasons, prosecution is rare, and there is in fact exception clause for mother’s life in danger.
But like you said, shows the heartless mentality of many pro-choicers, does it not, even to the point of attacking a woman’s character to do so, in ways if we do it to them, it would be (rightfully) seen as sexist attacks?
I just cant believe she got a dude to sleep with her, she is a boner killer
As someone currently enduring horrible morning sickness, just the thought of losing the baby I carry is enough to drive me to tears. “Just a miscarriage” would devastate my family, especially my 6 year old son, and take many years to get over. How little does human life mean to her that she could sit there and say that it wasn’t that bad?
Paris Hilton should wear one.