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

[keryx.livejournal.com]

I think an anti-abortion extremist is anyone who does or advocates violence against the other side. Is there any equivalent to that on our side? I could see the forced-birth or hypothetical forced-abortion people as extremist, too - being confronted by an actual living person and making them do what you tell them by force is pretty extreme.

Someone who just thinks abortion is murder, and wants to legislate that - well, I think they're massively misguided, anti-woman & wrong, but their position isn't that extreme given the cultural context, I guess. It's conservative, but it's not way out in right field.