"We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives" - Los Campesinos
I was amused by the "Abortion Party" story controversy discussed by Amanda the other day. The story itself on Alternet struck me as an amalgam of fact and creative writing. Bad creative writing at that, featuring among other absurdities a knowing three year old saying something implausible -- and trust me I've had a knowing three year old, but this dialogue does not ring true.
The long and short of it is that the story depicts a young college student throwing a house party to raise money needed for an abortion. As Amanda points out, such fund raisers are not unusual among uninsured people in lots of parts of the country. But evidently doing so for an abortion is either 1) murderous; or 2) incomprehensibly tacky. It's just not done.
Of course the righties got their granny panties in a knot (your humble blogger joined in the commenting fun) and depicted this as a post-abortion bacchanale in which fetus tartare was served as an appetizer. The alleged feminists at Salon decried the aforementioned tackiness and worried that such ill-bred women will spoil choice for the rest of us due to this self-evident lack of seriousness.
Look, there have been somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 million abortions in the U.S. since Rove v. Wade was decided. I have seen statistics showing that between 30 and 40 million different women in the U.S. have had abortions. Approximately 41% of women in my age bracket have had abortions. Isn't it time to stop pretending that nice women don't have abortions? Can't we acknowledge the likelihood that our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives or lovers have had an abortion and that it is not a shameful thing? More importantly, can't we acknowledge that for many this was not a devastating event filled with trauma and regret. Because, I've got to say, that's the case with the women I know. Salon women --either step up or go fuck Will Saletan. .
