I'd like to supply a coda to paulex's diaryfrom earlier today.
The anti-choice folks do not actually believe life begins at conception. I can prove this using just 3 letters.
IVF.
If life begins at conception and therefore abortion is murder, then it follows that fertility clinics are practicing torture and human slaughter on a massive scale.
For profit.
Furthermore, there is nothing equivalent to Roe v. Wade that stays the hand of "pro-life" governors and legislatures from outlawing this "barbarity" in their states.
But they do nothing.
If you corner a "pro-lifer" on this question, you will get one of three responses.
1) The movement has other priorities.
This is such bs. Is it really more important that a Republican governor and a Republican legislature spend their time writing scripts for doctors to read to their patients? In the time it took to draft, pass, sign and enact that law, every IVF clinic in the state could have been shut down. Remember: there is no Roe protection for IVF.
2) Well, IVF is done to start a family, therefore it is on a different plane.
This response gets to the nub of the genuine issue: women making choices; specifically women rejecting patriarchal notions.
3) I don't have a response, I've never thought about this before.
It is high time they were forced to.
I am constantly amazed at the pass that the media gives "pro-life Republicans" on this issue. Their 2012 presidential candidate has several dozen grandchildren in cryostorage somewhere, for Pete's sake!
The next time you face up to an anti-choicer, grill them on this point.