extremists

[keryx]

Planned Parenthood sent me an email today about Harriet Miers' 'extremist views' being exposed, and it made me giggle, in a gallowsy way.

Was anyone really suprised [sure we're not happy about it, but were you really shocked?] to find out she's adamantly anti-abortion? I mean, hello - evangelical Christian! I'm sure there are evangelicals who are pro-choice, but it's not exactly the norm.

I'm a bit bothered by the disrespect that movements exhibit towards each other. Being strongly anti-abortion isn't any more extremist than my staunch pro-abortion position. Calling someone "extremist" is just a means of discrediting them, and it shouldn't be. Extremists make change happen; they're visionaries and activists if you agree with them, after all.

Comments

[peregrin8.livejournal.com]

But judicially, the pro-choice "extremists" have a lot more precedent on our side. How many abortions a year? And the legal fights tend to be about smaller subcategories of abortion. To ban it overall would be a pretty big shift. (I also think that "extremism" tends to have a more specific meaning when it's used in terms of judges, especially SCOTUS. We may have outside-the-mainstream views but we are not in a position to use them disruptively. Unfortunately!)

[cutegaychick.livejournal.com]

I think pro-life vs. pro-choice positions are only extremists if you take them to the extreme. Being staunchly anti-abortion isn't extremist -- shooting abortion doctors is. Believing that women should have control over the lives of their unborn children isn't extremist -- believing that they should have control over the lives of their already-born children is.

We're smart people -- we can determine shades of gray. It isn't all black and white.