The Narcissism of Forced Birth

Why are some people anti-choice? It’s probably not what you think

Photo by Jack Prommel on Unsplash

I know this guy who’s a national columnist. His politics and his columns are reliably centrist, and he always defends Christians who are anti-choice by saying he believes they genuinely believe abortion is wrong and they’re voting their conscience to “save babies.”

Here’s the thing, though. This acquaintance of mine isn’t in the reproductive rights movement, he doesn’t spend a lot of time talking with either pro-choice or anti-choice folks.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years talking to forced birthers, and if you spend enough time talking to them, there’s a predictable, but surprising, reason for their antichoice stance.

Forced-birth women tend to have their view because its been shaped by religion. They’ve been told their whole lives abortion is murder and they’re willing to parrot that belief so as not to be shunned by their social group, which usually revolves around their church. Few of them, though, are willing to actually walk the talk and donate time and money to poor moms who choose to keep their pregnancies.

Many of them have also had abortions themselves. It’s amazing how forced birthers can come up with “acceptable” excuses for their own abortions, but don’t…