raising godzillas

You don't have to solve it yourself, but you do have to support the solutions

By now, there's a good chance you've seen Pennsylvania rep Brian Sim's video, posted to his own twitter, where he harasses a sidewalk counselor in front of a Planned Parenthood. We don't know what the protester was doing before he went live, though it's interesting that he didn't film it (maybe she was just praying, and not shouting at women?). There's been a lot said about his completely unprofessional, Trumpian behaviour, so I don't feel a need to add much to that. Instead, I'm going to focus on one of his early-rant accusations.

Sims, like many other pro-choice activists, asks his constituent if she'd personally put shoes on the feet of a child that day, or put a woman and child up in her home. We see this suggestion a lot: that a person can't be against abortion. This is ridiculous on the face of it. We see the same suggestion from far right, anti-immigrant agitators: You can't support offering sanctuary to immigrants if you aren't opening your home and couch to them. The idea that you have to be personally opening your home to people that you want to live and thrive  limits the number of people who get to have an opinion, and essentially cuts off the poor from having an opinion.

But, more conservative pro-life activists have an equally unhelpful response, which is to say "You don't have to solve a bad thing to oppose it", then shrugging their shoulders and going on to oppose any sort of social safety net. While not everyone is in a position to take people into their homes or donate large amounts of money, it's less than pointless to oppose something AND the solution to that problem.  A truly pro-life person will support free, accessible contraception, free college, Medicare for all, and robust supports for families like paid family leave, food and housing aide, and ANY OTHER supports that make it easier for pregnant people to choose life. Otherwise, you're part of the problem. 

posted by gojirama @ 3:11 PM