A week ago I was in Ohio, where Issue #1 on today’s ballot is the subject of reproductive rights.
A week ago I jumped into Twitter (X) engagement on the subject.
I remain deeply concerned about the misinformation used to mislead voters. After a week of banter on social media, I’m formulating theories about those who’ve been misled.
If you’re unfamiliar with Twitter, it’s hard to parse the bifurcated discussions that follow in the flurry of comments and responses to an interesting post.
Assumptions about me/my beliefs abound. There’s no personal experience or trust for a foundation of mutual respect, so people assume the worst. People don’t listen.
I can post, “Prevention, not termination, ends the need for this debate.” (i.e. prevent the conception of unwanted children, some 750k/year, the majority of terminated pregnancies).
And I get a response, “How narcissistic do you have to be to think you can prevent all unwanted and wanted but unviable pregnancies...”
This individual quickly called me out as a middle-aged white woman with misogynistic views and a desire to put my religion in other people’s uteruses.
With what I’m observing/experiencing, I’m forming hypotheses.
Hypothesis: Those who consider themselves most inclusive are typically the least tolerant of diverse views.
As I explained to another debater who accused me of making assumptions (when I raised questions based on my theories), Scientific Method involves observing trends and forming theories that are offered in the form of hypothesis based on assumptions which must be questioned in order to be proven.
So yes, I’m making some assumptions. That doesn’t mean I’m wrong.
Abortion advocates present emotional positions based on how they feel, not facts, and they seem to disregard facts that don’t support their beliefs. They’ve strong convictions, but personal attacks are a common response in lieu of a logical defense.
Hypothesis: Pro-abortion champions don’t consider abortion murder, which makes sense if the champion has personal experience with the difficult decision to end a healthy child’s life. Perhaps their own child’s life.
It breaks my heart to think about the difficulties we face as a society when we’ve devalued human life and normalized the “right” to end it.
This is an unpleasant subject but I feel compelled to face it as directly as I can. There are undertones that echo the discussions of the mid-1800’s, when human lives were also devalued based on arbitrary parameters.
I hope you’ll join me in a look at the numbers since 1973, following Roe v. Wade, which will be the subject of my next post here.
Let’s do this!