Every so often you will run across someone who’s pissed that the world expects them to act like a fucking adult for once and have either the chutzpah or lack of self-awareness to admit it. Unfortunately, the people who have a potent cocktail of narcissism and belief in false dichotomies are quite a bit more common.

The only thing that’s going to make the abortion debate “civil” is if the obnoxious “pro-life” jerks get a clue. As long as they think their opinions are so important that they need never take anyone else’s rights and feelings into account, they’re going to go on being obnoxious jerks. Regrettably, I don’t see that changing.

In any case, this issue really isn’t open to compromise. Either you believe pregnant women should be forced to bear children against their will, or you don’t.

Not to mention reproduction, since it’s by no means unknown for women (and men) to regret having had children.

Regret is simply a consequence of making a decision. If you don’t want to regret anything, then give away all of your rights.

On talk.abortion (where I honed my mad abortion-debate skillz), I dealt with someone who was upset that the legality of abortion was forcing choice on her. I pointed out that no one was requiring or demanding that she do anything: it only meant that she had the choice, and the legal right to make it. But her complaint was actually, “Yes, exactly! They’re forcing me to have the right to choose! I don’t want to have that right, and they’re forcing it on me!” All I could do was roll my eyes. (This was before I ran across the Prairie Muffin types who want to renounce the right to vote — and want to renounce it for me too.)

To complicate the idea that this is about Catholicism I might also add that the majority of Catholics who attend mass every Sunday are Hispanic, not white. And they overwhelmingly voted for Obama.

I know many many pro-life Catholics who voted for Obama because the strategy of voting for people who wanted to make abortion illegal clearly wasn’t working and they sincerely hope that better support for the poor might at least reduce the abortion rate. I’m not sure that any of them own Sponge Bob Sqaurepants babydoll stroller, though, so they might not count as “real” Catholics.

And carrying around those plastic babies reminds me of something I saw on BBC America about women who collect these lifelike baby dolls and treat them like real babies.

I find the “I regret my abortion” signs absurd. That statement is not meant to in anyway downplay the emotional torture that can accompany abortion. However, I think it is ridiculous to say “well, I made a mistake and I wish someone had told me I wasn’t allowed. I should have carried it to term. Oh, and since I made a mistake, I think I should be able to decide for all of you.” If we applied that logic, we should also outlaw adoption, because there are many women who regret giving up their child to adoption.

*sigh*