Having an abortion should not be the subject of a woman’s tweets. So it is whether one is for or against abortion. Angie Jackson maintains that she is tweeting about her abortion experience, using RU486, because she wants to demystify what having an abortion is all about. Does that explanation work for you? I certainly hope not.
Consider a slightly analogous case, namely a women tweeting about giving birth because, after all, she wants to demystify the birthing experience. Well, the problem in this case is that we have what surely constitutes a case of misplaced priorities. However wonderful it might be for a woman to demystify the birthing experience to the world, surely she should be far more interested in bonding with her baby than sending out tweets at every step along the way. The same holds if the father should be present. Giving birth is one of the most remarkable things that a woman does in life; and while I have not a clue regarding the specifics of such a wonderful act, I would not want my dearest friend to tweet about it from the delivery room.
Of course, whether to tweet or not about a very personal matter is a personal choice. But that truth does not settle the question of propriety. Abortion is certainly no more personal than giving birth. Yet, it is manifestly clear to me that it would be abominable for a woman to tweet about her birthing experience. Indeed, I would take her doing so as evidence that she is dysfunctional in some important way—there is a detachment from the moment that is out of order.
To be sure, having an abortion is just the opposite of giving birth. So, there cannot be the same excitement about bringing life into the world. But if a woman wishes to demystify abortion, it seems highly unlikely that sending tweets is the way to go. For one thing, one cannot put enough information in single tweets to make tweeting about the experience really informative beyond what we already know. For another, sending out tweets trivializes the abortion experience. And whether one is for abortion or not, the experience should not be trivialized.
Having watched Angie Jackson’s video,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59Ud3g2ymOM
I am more than a little persuaded that her motives are less than stellar and innocent. There was not a word in her video that was informative or instructive. That is, I do not think for a moment that anyone viewing her video would have a greater sense as to why using RU486 is less complicated than folks would have supposed.
In her video, Angie Jackson tells us that having an abortion, using RU486, is rather like having a miscarriage. Well there: That certainly clears up everything. Surely, any woman hearing that well grasp immediately that having an abortion using RU486 is entirely unproblematic. I am being sarcastic; and, alas, that is the point.
There is no reason whatsoever to think that typically women are worried about having an abortion; and for those who are worried, there is no reason whatsoever to think that such women are or will be re-assured by Angie Jackson’s tweets and YouTube video. And given what she actually says, it is ludicrous to think that Jackson could really have been motivated by the concern to be re-assuring to other women who might think to have an abortion.
What is more, Jackson tells us that she has significant health reasons for having an abortion. Well, if that is the case, it is not at all clear what has been the point of twittering about the experience and posting a YouTube video.
Here are Angie Jackson’s concluding remarks: ABORTION.
“So I just want to let everybody know that you, too, can have an abortion if you want one. It’s o.k. It is not shameful; it is not secret. It is not killing a child. I have a little boy. You guys have seen him on my video channel. He is my world. I want to stay alive be his mom a lot longer. So I am having an abortion. I hope everybody on YouTube has a great and godless day. Peace.”
First, her words hardly sound like an individual aiming to offer insightful considerations regarding abortion for those with serious health concerns. Second, it is surely the very rare person who would object to a woman having an abortion if the mother-to-be has serious health concerns that would arise if she proceeded with the pregnancy. And in term of having an abortion whilst having significant health problems, she does not say anything that is remotely informative, let alone re-assuring.
Jackson tells us that “You, too, can have an abortion if you want one”. And she ends with “Have a great and godless day”. Her motivation was not to inform people about anything. Rather, she used the pretext of being informative for no other reason than to flaunt the fact that she is having an abortion using RU486. Whatever else is true, Angie Jackson should not be the spokeswoman for the pro-choice movement. Why, Angie Jackson does not have enough intellectual horsepower to be the spokesperson for herself, let alone a social movement.
I had not heard about RU486-pills before, so she did inform me. Although I had heard that having an early abortion was much less complicated than a later abortion, I had no knowledge about the process and that one could just take some pills and go home.
I do not think most people learn much about abortion before they need one. Knowing that it can be done quickly and easily with a couple of pills, they can focus on the important part: Do they want a baby and do they want it now?
Angie Jackson does exactly what she sets out to do, she demystifies abortion, and additionally says a few words to make people who are considering an abortion feel better about themselves. She also provides an very personal example, which is often much more valuable than some complete factual source, full of “intellectual horsepower” (quoting you).
Pro-choice vs pro-ban (they call themselves “pro-life”) is a totally different issue. This is about helping people make one of the most important choices they’ll ever make, whether they want an abortion due to health concerns, they got pregnant by accident or they changed their mind about wanting a baby.
Kind regards from a very excited father-to-be.
When I look at this woman, hear her tell about her abortion and read the interview, that I found at The Frisky http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-frisky-qa-angie-jackson-the woman-who-live-tweeted-her-abortion/ I feel very sorry for her.
As I thought about her story I remembered Irene Vilar, who has written the book Impossible Motherhood about her 15 abortions.
And I feel sorry for women and men who put themselves and their children, born and unborn, through so much pain and suffering.
Both Angie Jackson and Irene Vilar knew before getting pregnant that their pregnancy were impossible, Irene Vilar because of her husband’s absolute and open non-acceptance of having children and Angie Jackson because of her own obviously known health-situation, so why did they and their partners not do what was needed to prevent the pregnancies from happening? Why being open to a situation where you beforehand knew that you would have to kill your own child?
What would you think of a person that opened her/his door to let you in just to kill you as soon as you entered?
Angie Jackson tells us that it is no big deal to have an abortion. Well, she might not have been feeling much physical pain, women also have late abortions under an anaesthetic, so it is possible to have an abortion without feeling the immediate physical pain, we know that. But she might wake up later to feel the pain of other longterm aftereffects both physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Longterm effects that are widely described and recognized.
So don’t take her words for more than they are, words that show her ignorance, inexperience and immaturity, words that show us how terrible misguided and unenlightened she is. This is not a happy, sound, healthy and strong young woman telling us news to bring enlightening comfort to other women and the world, on the contrary is she bringing more darkness and tragedy forward.
This is the sad story of many women (and men), who have been damaged and scared.
This is not an example of God’s truth but an example of lives lived without Jesus Christ.
We need to welcome it into the open and pray for the healing of these persons as well as all of our society, that this darkness be dispelled that we can live together in joy, wisdom and love to the end that we do no longer put ourselves in unloving situations that make us give in to killing other human beings, and indeed not the most innocent and defenseless.
Lord Jesus, I pray for your forgiveness for this young woman, Angie Jackson, and all who have made the terrible decision of having their own children killed as well as all who have been part of this decision and killing.
Lord Jesus, I pray for their conversion, repentance and healing. I pray that they will come to the place where they will see and acknowledge the deep wound and loss they have caused not only to themselves, but to a humanity that have been deprived of a human being and the gift that God had so intended to bring forth through that very special incoming child.
Lord Jesus, I pray for Angie Jackson to have the help needed to be restored to full humaneness by acknowledging the pain of having killed her own child, by acknowledging that she is now a mother of 2 children, one of which she gave no chances to receive neither her own love nor the love from other human beings.
Lord Jesus, I pray that Angie Jackson will have the help needed to begin to love both of her children, to name her dead child, give it a funeral and a grave and beg this child and God for forgiveness, that she will begin to love and care for her second child as much as she loves and cares for her first child, that she will begin to pray for both of her children and that she will begin to love herself, her partner and her surviving first child and her murdered second child so deeply that she will never put herself and her family through a similar situation.
Lord Jesus, I pray for Angie Jackson and her family in heaven and on earth to be restored to true Christ-wholeness and Christ-peace.
Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, establish thou it, I pray and I thank you and praise you for your Holy Will to be done in this matter and all matters that has to do with the truth and lies of abortion. Amen.
Unfortunately the above link to the Frisky interview did not work. Here it is again:
http:://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-frisky-qa-angie-jackson-the-woman-who-live-tweeted-her-abortion/
I hope this will work better. If not you will have to search yourselves at the Frisky, by entering Angie Jackson in the searchmachine.