"Your Ideas Are Stupid!"

(Excuse this rambling commentary. I'm tossing around a few thoughts on the consequences of the abortion movement.)

The world is a funny place...or not so funny. When Roe v. Wade passed, it was supposed to be a victory for women. Women were free! Women were now in charge of their own bodies! Women would no longer be subjected to the trauma of an unwanted pregnancy. So imagine my surprise at some of the reactions we got at the "Stand Up For Life" last Sunday.

For the record, most reactions were unremarkable. As we stood, block after block, along a major north-south route holding the usual signs, chatting, cheering, and praying together peacefully, most people who drove by ignored us. Quite a few, both men and women, of all races, cheered, gave us "thumbs up," waved, or honked (including one guy driving an 18-wheeler who honked all the way along the line). It was encouraging, and heartwarming on an otherwise chilly day.

Then, of course, there were the dissenters. They were, in fact, very few, but those that I saw all had something in common: They were all young men. One young man threw something at us as he drove by. Luckily, his aim was poor, and the object fell short of its target. Another few gave us the thumbs down. Another rolled down his window and shouted, "Your ideas are stupid." Later, as we pulled out of the parking lot after everyone had left, we saw another group of three young men with hand made "pro-choice" signs walking on the other side of the road, jostling each other, each trying to make the other be the first in line for their counter demonstration, such as it was. Frankly, it would have been comical, as the folks to whom their message was aimed had all left, if the subject were not so serious. But the entire time I was there, from the beginning to the end, not one woman protested our message. Granted, I could have missed someone, or a woman could have protested down the line where I did not notice, but all the negative reactions I saw were from young men.

Here is my "stupid idea": Roe v. Wade benefits young men who wish to do whatever they want without consequences. Roe enables men to be abusers of women.

Years ago, I was at a college student government meeting where some radical women discussed their experiences at a "peace encampment" (the US was not at war at the time). At the encampment, it seems, some young men in suits (as the women described them) came into the camp and started asking questions and arguing with the women. There was no violence, no yelling, just discussion. During the report to the student government on the encampment, one woman, hysterical and crying, stood up and said, "And I wonder how many of those men went home and raped their wives that night!" I suspect the answer was, "none."

Would asking a similar question about these young pro-choice men be fair? Did they go out that night and randomly "hook-up" (as they say) with women they barely knew, free from any consequences because of Roe? Have they paid for their girlfriends to have abortions, or convinced them that abortion was the best thing to do? And how, oh how, does this benefit women?

ETA: Row to Roe. Yeah, I cannot spell. I know. I need a secretary. Did I spell that correctly?