Can’t I be both?
You knew this post was coming. I even debated as to whether or not it was useful to have this post but then I realized this is the issue. This is the core and the heart of the War On Choice. The symbols that we are attempting to reshape starts with pro choice and pro-life rhetoric. An individual that subscribes to these symbols literally means that one cannot be pro-life and still endorse a woman’s right to choose. What is the alternative?
This article chooses to use the word anti-choice instead of pro life. This is an interesting choice of rhetoric. Not equating the people that oppose abortion as being for life but anti-choice. Anti agency, and anti a voice or a right a woman would have over her own body. I think this is a unique way to look at the different rhetorical implications of those word choices. If someone asks me what are you pro life or pro choice, my response is always both. .. those are two values I hold very dearly. However, I am going to defend a woman’s right over her own body every day of the week.
Yet that may not be the case for everyone. I do not think that being pro-choice means you are pro-abortion. What I find most astounding is the ability of other individuals to dictate what should and should not be allowed for another person. I do not view myself as someone that sends a person a greeting card, “Congratulations you had an abortion”. But I would say congratulations you were allowed to exercise your agency as a person.
What strikes me as the most confusing people that are “pro-life” are most often for the death penalty as well, along with the War in Iraq and many other right-wing policies. It does not seem very much pro-life to advocate the United States invading another country, or advocating that we strip away people’s humanities at Guantanamo Bay. I do not think they are “pro” anything but more so ANTI-Choice, and Anti-Agency.
Mission: How often do we say pro-choice v. pro life? Is it merely built into our daily discourse? Do we want to change it? What is another word that could be used? Do you believe it matters?
waronchoice 