On Sun, 13 Nov 2005, Jordan Hayes wrote:
> another weird quirk of this is that I always ask people who are vaguely
> against it if they've ever known anyone who has had or needed an abortion,
> and they always say 'no' like I was asking if they knew anyone who was a
> crack addict or a welfare scammer.
>
> Maybe what we need is a National Elective Abortion Day to get people more
> involved! Ok, wait ... just kidding.
Actually it's not entirely a joke. Several people have decided that what you noticed is key -- that many people seem to be vaguely against it largely because they think they don't know anyone whose needed one -- so that the logical next move is to make clear that's not true. With
T-shirts:
http://www.bitchmagazine.com/archives/12_04abortiontees/index.shtml
and movies (this showing moderated by our own Liza Featherstone):
http://www.livejournal.com/users/students4choice/11405.html
On a more personal note, my 85 year old Mom is a great example of the converse. She grew up as Catholic as you can get. Four of her sisters became nuns. But during WWII she moved to New York, a pioneer in her set, and lived on W. 12th St., near St. Vincent's Hospital. So when girls from the tiny Western Pennsylvania mining towns she grew up in needed an abortion, they ended up recoving at her house. Often girls who she only knew second hand, and it often took a lot of recovery. And so since before I was born, she has always been the perfect example of a Catholic supporter of abortion rights: personally against it for herself, but firmly against making it illegal. And as certain in her mixed convictions as other people are in their pure ones.
Michael