Guardian Writer--"I Wish My Mother Had Aborted Me" (KingShamus)

The pro-choice movement:  They thirst for death.

An abortion would have absolutely been better for my mother. An abortion would have made it more likely that she would finish high school and get a college education. At college in the late 1960s, it seems likely she would have found feminism or psychology or something that would have helped her overcome her childhood trauma and pick better partners. She would have been better prepared when she had children. If nothing else, getting an abortion would have saved her from plunging into poverty. She likely would have stayed in the same socioeconomic strata as her parents and grandparents who were professors. I wish she had aborted me because I love her and want what is best for her.

Abortion would have been a better option for me. If you believe what reproductive scientists tell us, that I was nothing more than a conglomeration of cells, then there was nothing lost. I could have experienced no consciousness or pain. But even if you discount science and believe I had consciousness and could experience pain at six gestational weeks, I would chose the brief pain or fear of an abortion over the decades of suffering I endured.

An abortion would have been best for me because there is no way that my love-starved, trauma-addled mother could have ever put me up for adoption. It was either abortion or raising me herself, and she was in no position to raise a child. She had suffered a traumatic brain injury, witnessed and experienced severe domestic violence, and while she was in grade school she was raped by a stranger and her mother committed suicide. She was severely depressed and suicidal, had an extremely poor support system, was experiencing an unplanned pregnancy that resulted from coercive sex, and she was so young that her brain was still undeveloped.

Nihilism disguised as selflessness.   

Beyond that, look at the amazing speculative leaps Lynn Beisner makes in order to prove her point.  If the mother had aborted Ms. Beisner, she asserts that her mom probably would've been better off.  In the next paragraph, she runs through the long laundry list of reasons why her mother was in really awful shape at the time she was pregnant with Ms.Beisner.

Well, since we're playing "What if?" counter-factual history games, what makes Beisner think it all that likely that her young abused brain-damaged depressed rape victim mother would've finished high school in the first place?  A person with that many strikes against them--and a truly tragic personal history to boot--is far more likely to drop out of high school then to finish with a diploma, regardless of whether the person has an unplanned pregnancy or not.  That means no college.  It also means no 'feminism or psychology or something' to help her cope with her extremely difficult circumstances.

Now it's true that Beisner's mom had a horrible life before she had her child.  Let us suppose that her life was made more difficult by taking an unplanned pregnancy to term.  Concede for a moment the idea that caring for a child under less than ideal circumstances was a substantial burden on Mommy Beisner.

The fact remains that the writer Lynn Beisner lives and breathes because, even though her mother was ill-suited to the role of parent, she still decided to give her daughter a life.  Isn't there even a speck of nobility to be found in that act?  Even if Beisner's mother was a train-wreck, the fact remains that she cared enough to bring her child into the world.  While it might be a mundane occurrence, it's still an amazingly selfless thing to do for another human being.  

Sadly, Ms. Beisner isn't done pwning herself.

The world would not be a darker or poorer place without me. Actually, in terms of contributions to the world, I am a net loss. Everything that I have done – including parenting, teaching, researching, and being a loving partner – could have been done as well, if not better by other people. Any positive contributions that I have made are completely offset by what it has cost society to help me overcome the disadvantages and injuries of my childhood to become a functional and contributing member of society.

Conservatives are often accused of reducing people down to dry statistics.  But what has the theology of abortion done here?  Beisner is asserting that her life is pretty much meaningless.  She is, in her own words, a net loss.  That's about as reductive as it gets.  

It is said that a liberal is a person who won't take their own side in an argument.  Beisner's thesis is the barren withered endpoint of the pro-abortion movement:  "We support infanticide because we are pointless."

This is far beyond just giving women reproductive 'choice'.  This Abortion Above All Else philosophy argues against humans and everything they do.  Work, being a good parent, romantic love; all these things are to be reduced down to a finite quantifiable value which can be used to determine whether a person made a positive contribution to the world.  Because Ms. Beisner clearly hates herself, she sees her own life as something unworthy of her mother's initial sacrifice to give birth to her daughter.

Are the people within the pro-abortion movement prepared to look at their own lives with the same kind of self-loathing criticism?  Is the anti-life cause ready to apply Ms. Beisner's criterion for judging a 'good' life to themselves and everyone else?  If Ms.Beisner' essay is any indication, the answer is a very chilling yes.

UPDATE (baldilocks): Welcome to Ace of Spades HQ ONT Morons^tm and Moronettes^tm!

Comments

[Sanity Inspector]

If we trace our ancestry back far enough, we would all probably encounter someone with a similar hardluck story. And yet here we all are, in spite of everything.

[Sanity Inspector]

"When I hear people talk about juggling, or the sacrifices they make for their children, I look at them like they're crazy, because 'sacrifice' infers that there was something better to do than being with your children."
-- Chris Rock

[small town girl]

I read this yesterday and found it extremely sad, disturbing, and almost arrogant in it's nilhism. I found myself praying for this person this morning.

[EBL]

I pray and hope she finds happiness and fulfillment one day. I also pray and hope no one takes her advice now. She is emotionally damaged.

[EBL]

The Blaze had a good take on this too.

Your post is great Baldilocks. I agree with all your points. I thought this story might be a parody at first, but sadly I think it is real.

[EBL]

I mean King Shamus! My bad.

[KingShamus]

SI: Great points.

STG: I feel pity for this Lynn Beisner. I can't really be angry with someone so pitiful.

EBL: She's not well. And it's alright if you call me Baldi, that's a helluva compliment to me. :-)

[Somercet.blogspot.com]

If this writer is a net loss, why are we listening to her?

[steve]

Lynn Beisner seems like a woman with severe depression. I've been there, and her thought patterns are very familiar. She needs prayers and professional help.