I don’t know what made me think of this…
But I have to clarify something.
One can not be both pro-life and pro-choice. It doesn’t really work that way.
You either think that women have the right to make decisions involving their bodies and what goes into them, stays in them, and comes out of them, or you don’t.
It really is that simple.
You can be personally pro-life, I suppose, and still be politically pro-choice. Meaning, you could personally know that if the choice was in front of you, involving your very own body, that you would not be willing to have an abortion of your very own, but you would still realize that your ick factor shouldn’t negate the right for every other woman out there to have the right to make that choice for herself as well. You would recognize that the fact that you personally being uncomfortable w/ abortion is your problem, and not something that you should be forcing on other women.
You would still have to believe that women fundamentally have the right to choose for themselves.
Otherwise you are anti-choice.
Plain and simple.
random babble... 
Comments on: "Now that things have calmed down today…" (9)
Word.
Sister speaks for me!
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I suspect that calling oneself both pro-life and pro-choice is a result of not having thought it through quite far enough. They’ve thought it through enough to recognize that ending a pregnancy is often (not always, but we’ll ignore that for now) a difficult choice, and that they wouldn’t want others to make the choice for them. It’s just that last step (this post) that’s missing.
You have just explained how someone can be both pro-life and pro-choice. You have also described my sister. We were raised Catholic, so there is that. Anyway, she is pro-life only for herself, this is her -choice-. But she also knows that her faith and beliefs are not everyone else’s faith and beliefs, and that they may make another choice. In fact, she knows that I had an abortion and does not condemn me for it. The difference is certainty, or rather belief that you are certain. She doesn’t have that and looks to her church for guidance. The rabid pro-lifers you mean, believe that life begins at conception, and have that certainty about it, since to them it is murder there can be no compromises.
Pretty sure that I was clear what I meant.
One can not say, “well, I am both. I am pro-life and pro-choice”. Unless they are speaking of exactly this scenario. Sadly, the people I am referring to, are not. There are a lot of people who think they can have it both ways. And it doesn’t work that way.
You either think women have a right to choose, or you don’t.
I don’t really need someone else to tell me what I mean.
Who are the people you are referring to? I can’t see another context where someone would say that they are both pro-life and pro-choice. I’m not trying to tell you what you mean, I’m trying to understand what you mean and obviously failing. Would it be something like someone saying they are pro-choice but only for people who are Christian and would only choose to continue a pregnancy or something like that?
No, I am talking about people who actually say they are both pro life and pro choice.
People like your sister do not fall into that category. She is pro-choice, since she obviously believes that her ick factor over abortion is not trumped by another woman’s right to choose.
I wrote exactly what I meant in the original post. There are a surprising number of people, some whom I talk to every day, who seem to think that you can be pro-life “except when”, or think that abortion isn’t OK unless…
It isn’t an if then situation. It’s an either or, which is all I am saying. Obviously someone who isn’t trying to push their own personal beliefs into the mainstream to stop other people from having rights is not going to be considered an anti-choicer.
Is that clear? I am not trying to come down hard on you, but I think you are trying to read into this a lot harder than you need to, or trying to make it fit a situation that it isn’t meant to. There are people who honestly think they can be both pro-life and pro-choice politically speaking, and it just isn’t a negotiable situation. Personal is different, so long as no one is losing their rights over it.
There is a line in the sand, and people need to own their side. That is all.
You’re right I was reading more into it and misunderstanding. Saying, “I am pro-choice except when (name conditions).” is a great example that cleared things up for me. All I can say in my defense is that my sister did pop into my head immediately, but yeah, clearly she is pro-choice and believes it is up to women to make the decision for themselves no matter what her own personal choice is.