Anti-abortion policies and what they mean
You may have seen this text before; it's been floating around on an image for a while. Truth is, I was just going to upload that image and post it, but Tumblr resized it to be harder to read, plus I would have had to type out alt text for it anyway. This makes it easier.

Trigger warning: This post references pregnancy, childbirth, abortion, rape, and incest.

Please don't whine at me that the wording in this post is un-inclusive of people who aren't women but can still get pregnant. I'm well aware that such people exist, being one myself. I'm also rational enough to recognize that the anti-choice movement is explicitly an attack on women, and the rest of us (who anti-choicers think are women anyway) are collateral damage. Thus, the text, "Is this policy consistent with wanting women who have sex to suffer consequences?" refers to the viewpoints of anti-choicers, and does not state an undeniable fact about the gender of persons who get pregnant.

POLICY: Abortion bans which expressly protect the mother from all legal consequences.
Is this policy consistent with the belief that abortion is the same as child murder? NO. No one would endorse a law saying that parents who pay contract killers to murder their four-year-old may in no circumstances be punished.
Is this policy consistent with wanting women who have sex to suffer consequences? YES. By cutting off women from abortion, these laws will tend to force women who have sex to bear unwanted children.

POLICY: Opposing contraception and comprehensive sex education.
Is this policy consistent with the belief that abortion is the same as child murder? NO. Pushing contraception and sex-ed on teens is how countries like Belgium have achieved the lowest abortion rates in the world. No one who genuinely thinks abortion is murder could rationally oppose policies that would save tens of thousands of children from being murdered.
Is this policy consistent with wanting women who have sex to suffer consequences? YES. The less teen girls have access to contraception and sex ed, the more likely it is that they will suffer consequences (STDs, pregnancy) for having sex.

POLICY: Abortion bans which provide exceptions for rape and incest.
Is this policy consistent with the belief that abortion is the same as child murder? NO. No one would say that it is acceptable to murder a four-year-old because of the circumstances of the child's conception.
Is this policy consistent with wanting women who have sex to suffer consequences? YES. Exceptions for incest and rape are consistent with a belief in punishing women who have sex; since incest and rape victims are not to blame for having sex, they are exempt from punishment.

POLICY: Banning the intact D&X abortion procedure (sometimes called "partial birth abortion").
Is this policy consistent with the belief that abortion is the same as child murder? NO. Banning late-term D&X abortions (or any other particular procedure) will not save a single fetal life, since doctors will switch to other procedures.
Is this policy consistent with wanting women who have sex to suffer consequences? YES. The other procedures doctors switch to have a higher risk of injuring the mother, thus making it more likely that she suffers consequences.

POLICY: Advocating less generous welfare for poor single mothers.
Is this policy consistent with the belief that abortion is the same as child murder? NO. According to conservatives, welfare encourages poor women to have children. If one believes that abortion is exactly the same as murder, it should be worth paying for welfare to lower the child murder rate.
Is this policy consistent with wanting women who have sex to suffer consequences? YES. By keeping poor single mothers poor, opposing welfare increases the consequences of having sex.

POLICY: Opposing a vaccine for the human papilloma virus (HPV).
Is this policy consistent with the belief that abortion is the same as child murder? N/A. Opposing this vaccine neither supports nor contradicts the belief that abortion is murder.
Is this policy consistent with wanting women who have sex to suffer consequences? YES. If the vaccine is successfully blocked, nearly 4,000 American women a year, most of whom have chosen to have sex, will die of cervical cancer. Allowing the vaccine would spare them this consequence.

POLICY: Morally condemning extremists who bomb abortion clinics.
Is this policy consistent with the belief that abortion is the same as child murder? NO. If abortion is exactly the same as murder, then people who bomb abortion clinics should be idolized.
Is this policy consistent with wanting women who have sex to suffer consequences? NO. If more clinics were blown up, more women might have to face the consequences of having sex.

POLICY: Opposing U.S. government funding for the U.N. Population Fund.
Is this policy consistent with the belief that abortion is the same as child murder? NO. The U.N. Population Fund does not provide abortions, but it is probably the world's leading provider of birth control and reproductive health education to the third world. Defunding the Population Fund leads to tens of thousands of additional abortions every year. (Contrary to anti-choice claims, the Population Fund does not support forced abortion in China.)
Is this policy consistent with wanting women who have sex to suffer consequences? YES. Cutting off funding to the Population Fund makes it more likely that third world women who have sex will suffer consequences such as STDs, unwanted childbirth, fistula, and maternal death.

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