Wow, that's totally creepy. The illogic there would be shocking if it weren't so clearly par for the anti-choice course.

Best part - they're men's T-shirts.

I just checked out that Heritage House thing and its way beyond creepy. I pretty much agree qwith christy.(the comment before mine)

I just checked out that Heritage House thing and its way beyond creepy. I pretty much agree with christy.(the comment before mine)

Jessica: great, direct, irrefutable point.

I always find it so perplexing that in big, important elections for most people it only comes down to 2 issues: abortion and whether or not gays can marry. That's why Bush was able to weasel his way into office again. *sigh*

Once those zygotes become separate, breathing, born children, they'll realize their mistakes.

I saw a button once that read, "Former Fetus for Choice." I absolutely loved it.

I heard later that the guy wearing it got beaten, rather badly, for it, and I never saw it again. (I confess I only __heard__ that he got beaten, but I know I never saw the button again.)

Well, the best thing I can say is that I commend Heritage House for this statement against anti-choice protestors' violence:

"And to Pro-Lifers around the country, the [anti-abortion led] violence at clinics is sickening. Yet, that violence no more negates the moral wrong of abortion than the violence of the Civil War negated the moral wrong of slavery."

However, I'd like to push them a little on this issue of "traditional" families (see their homepage statement). "Tradition" and "Authentic" are two words folk around the world love to trumpet...and social scientists love to unpack.

Just what flavor of "traditional" family does Heritage House endorse? Surely not the Nuclear Family of yore, which before the 20th century was a bizarre alternative lifestyle choice in most of the world--including the U.S. and Europe. In fact, much of Asia and Africa today views the Nuclear with suspicion, as a recent Western invention that usurps centuries-old practices.

Hardly "traditional" in the colloquial sense, yes?

I'll be charitable and assume HH means "tradition" within the dominant European-American paradigm that includes: (1) the Western family norm of Europe, and (2) the non-Western family norms of West Asia that, through the Judaic and Christian traditions, informed European ones.

But these two paradigms give us plenty of "traditional" fodder:

--No boundaries between natal family and family of procreation
-- Cohabitation with what's known today as "extended" family
--Matrilocal or Patrilocal marriage relocation (i.e. either the woman or man moving to join the household of their in-laws--fun times, yeah?)
--Cousin-marriage
--unlimited polygyny rights extended to pre-Christian and Pre-Islamic rulers--kings, chiefs, etc.
--limited polygyny of Islam (up to four wives)--(to those HH who would deny the Islamic connection, Judaism, Christianity and Islam were "born" in the same southwest Asian geo-cultural environment and as such share some important features.)

We won't touch on the shameful "horrors" of polyandry--Man-hungry wives gone crazy, yo!--since those weren't widely *formally* recognized in either European or Abrahamic milieus, and, as such, aren't "traditional" for many Heritage House members. (Unless HH has a lot of members hailing from, say, the Himalayas).

So, I again put the question to HH members or their supporters: Why do you not make explicit that the "tradiational" set-up you've seized on as The Right Way is only one of many Western family traditions, and one of the most recently innovated ones to boot?

I would add "natural" to that list of words we need to be suspicious of. The "natural" is a wholly cultural concept. Go, social scientists!

I kept misreading that as 'Unicorn Babies for McCain/Palin' and was perplexed, and wondering if it was some sort of statement on how McCain and Palin are so utterly detached from reality, they now have the imaginary animal vote.

How about "Vampires For McCain/Palin" -- because if you can't deny your body to a being who needs it to survive, then vampires can bite anyone they want, and you can't stake them for it!

"Cannibals For McCain/Palin" -- if someone can live inside your body and feed off your bloodstream and you can't kick them out, why can't someone eat your foot? Come on, how bad did you need that foot? I'm *starving* here.

I saw a button once that read, "Former Fetus for Choice." I absolutely loved it.

The key difference between that button and this t-shirt (aside from the pro-choice/anti-choice split) is that the button-wearer was speaking for themselves while the people wearing the damn t-shirts are presuming to speak for zygotes (or, in their minds, human beings) who are not themselves. They're putting words in the mouths of other entities. Which is disrespectful to those other entities, whether you believe they're human beings or not . . .

You know, it does kind of make sense. After all, fetuses don't have brain development yet, and neither, it seems, do many anti-choicers.

Can you imagine that prenatal doctor visit!?!

"Ma'am... ma'am. We need to talk. According to this ultrasound, it appears that..it looks like...ma'am. Is that a PICKET SIGN in your uterus?"

I'm in central NY state (I live in the district in which Randall Terry ran for Congress), and before they lost ballot access because they weren't getting enough votes, the Right To Life Party had a row in our voting machines. The first time I noticed it I wondered "What's a cashew doing on the ballot?" but when I looked closer, much as the Democrats had a little picture of a donkey and the Republicans had a little picture of an elephant, the RTL party had a little picture of a fetus on our voting machines.

Whenever you speak for someone or something else, you're simply speaking for yourself and not taking responsibility for the weird shit you say. Maybe some embryos are saying, "Since I haven't differentiated yet, I'm still technically a girl, and I don't want to be born into a country where my body belongs to the government in the event I'm born a girl, damnit!"

So that's a real shirt? It seems like the kind of thing BustedTees.com would put out ironically.

People only get to make reproductive decisions that affect their bodies. Men get to decide to put on a condom or get a vasectomy because right now those are the only options for them. Women have a wider array of options for birth control, barrier methods, or permanent sterilization.

Women get to make the decisions regarding abortion because they have control over their bodies' reproduction. Men do not get to decide what women can do with their bodies, just as women do not get to decide what men can do with their bodies. When men start getting pregnant then they can make their own decisions about abortion.

Oh boo hoo for men who don't want kids but end up impregnating a woman. They have a chance to take precautions at any step in the reproductive process they are involved in, but after that they are responsible.

I kept misreading that as 'Unicorn Babies for McCain/Palin'

*lauhing* JPlum, I like your shirt better!

Those pesky things that carry fetuses around? They're called women, and unlike fertilized eggs, fetuses, or any other part of said women's bodies, they can actually vote. You may want to remember that next time you make a t-shirt.

a big ol' fucking word, right there.

That, Jessica, seems to be the point that these thick anti's can't seem to grasp. And they would do well to remember that.

samhita, I was disturbed to find out that you deleted my other comments I made from my other posts, including the one I made on the post called "John Mccain has suspending his campaign, calls for obama to do the same, my comment read "I think this is a selfless and courageous thing Mccain is doing"- that's all it said.

Instead of telling me what was wrong with that post, you instead deleted it without anyone knowing or without telling anyone- not good samhita.

I have read the comments policy and would like to know in what way I violated it by making that comment.

This is a public blog and I would like to know why you are obviously controlling peoples opinions so much.

I think at least one other blogger at this website agreed with me- "Wow, so now commenter's with opposing viewpoints are belittled and then told to go away and never come back? Unfortunately, when you post on a public blog like this you open yourself up to criticism, as I'm sure all the other ladies who post here have noticed. If you don't want to hear other peoples' opinions, keep it on a private blog that only your friends can read" -After the way samhita treated me today, I'm afraid I am starting to agree with you, Morgan La Fey.

samhita, instead of cowardly deleting this comment, I think you need to explain you censorious actions to me and the other posters.

This is supposed to be a website where women can feel free to express their opinions without being belittled.

Unicorn babies! That's rad :D

p.s. sorry guys for putting this comment on so many posts, I'm just afraid samhita will delete it before you guys can see how bad samhita has gotten lately when it comes to deleating people's different points of view

I agree Jessica it's so incredibly creepy. But I was rolling on the floor with Nimue's comment "Unicorn Babies for McCain/Palin" isn't it amazing how our minds work...we know something about someone and we begin to make connections based off of that knowledge..."imaginary animal vote" seems like the next logical choice for them.

Won't be long until the Ultra-Cons are pushing for voting rights for fetuses...maybe I shouldn't say that out loud, they might get the idea and run with it.

I also laughed out loud hysterically at the "Vampires For McCain/Palin" and "Cannibals For McCain/Palin" commentary- that made my day JPlum.

dude, even if the fetuses are "babies" or "children," they still wouldn't be able to vote.

O wow. I thought it was cute until I realized they weren't joking. Crap.