Why Comparing Abortion to the Holocaust is Offensive

I don't know why this even needs explaining. But I will, if only to straighten out my own thoughts on it, and because I am baffled that anyone thinks this is ok. 

Abortion & The Holocaust

Abortion is a common, legal medical procedure that in over 90% of cases happens in the first trimester and involves 2 tablets to dislodge a cell growth.

The Holocaust was a violent genocide of over six billion living humans. It included forced labour, imprisonment, starvation, torture and murder. It also included sexual violence and inflicting forcible sterilisation and abortion on unwilling women. 

The Nazis Removed Bodily Autonomy

The Nazis banned abortions for Aryan women (making it a capital offence) and subjected women they disapproved of to forced sterilisations and abortion.

The thing that disturbs me most about pro-life rebuttals to this argument is that they don't see that forcing a woman to have a baby she does not want and forcing a woman to have an abortion are equally bad. 

Many women during the Holocaust lacked bodily autonomy. They were subject to sexual violence, medical abuses, forced sterilisation, forced abortion (note the forced bit). Pregnancy for a woman in the ghettos or camps meant death. 

Abortion Saved Lives During the Holocaust

Pregnancy in the ghettos or the camps meant selection and death. It was a truism during the war. It is referenced in Schindler's Ark, where they touch upon Schindler's purchase of 'gynaecological instruments' to save the life of one of his women workers.

A more historic and heroic example of this hideous situation is Gisella Perl. I do not believe human life begins at conception, but Perl did. Nevertheless, she performed thousands of abortions on women - because she knew the alternative was definitely death for mother and child, possibly preceded by cruel medical experimentation. 

There are some very strange people who see Perl as a butcher. 

This is a woman who violated her own personal beliefs in order to save literally thousands of lives. It would have been easier and safer for her to let those women go to vivisection and death. She would have been murdered had she been caught. But instead, she made the hard choice and risked her life to save theirs. 

Most importantly...

The Jewish Faith is Explicitly Pro Choice

The Jewish position is that the mother's life always takes precedence over that of the foetus. Abortion is also acceptable where the pregnancy is causing physical or mental distress. Unsurprisingly, Conservative Judaism is stricter than Reform Judaism, a movement which is explicitly pro-choice. 

Co-opting the genocide of a group of people who explicitly disagree with your beliefs in order to promote your beliefs is pretty unpleasant. 

So?

I am not saying that pro-lifers are Nazis for being anti-abortion, any more than I am saying that pet owners are Nazis because Hitler owned a dog. 

I am saying that the Nazis sought to restrict bodily autonomy for all women, in several different ways. 

I am saying that that was an explicit technique of the Holocaust. 

I am saying that comparing the right to abortion to a genocide that specifically sought to take bodily autonomy and choice away from women is ludicrous. 

Stephen Fry and the BAFTAS

Stephen Fry made a rude joke about Jenny Beaven at the BAFTAS and was pilloried.

Now, I love Stephen Fry.  I think he was bantering with a friend, and that should have been taken into account. I also think his joke was  ill considered, because yeah, women do get shit for what they wear when men don't.

I don't think this is a case of egregious sexism. I also don't think that this is an example of 'social justice warriors' (how I loathe that term) bullying a great person, or about how we're all 'too politically correct'. 

I think this is an example of how we can't leave people with mental illness the fuck alone.

Stephen Fry & Bipolar

Stephen Fry is a man who has been open about his struggle with bipolar disorder. He's produced brilliant documentaries, spoken about his suicide attempts and works with fantastic organisations like Mind. He's acknowledged that his personal wealth cushions him from some of the negative effects of his illness and that in some respects he's very lucky compared to others. 

He's still a human being, struggling with mental illness, in the public sphere. And the public sphere's reaction is to mock him for it. 

Let's go over events leading up to him being excoriated on social media and the press. 

• Ill considered, slightly off remarks.
• Arguing with people online and off. 
• Expletive laden 'meltdown' in public.
• Sensitive reaction to criticism. 
• Grandiose gestures (quitting Twitter).
• Wanting to run away (the suggested move to Hollywood).

All behaviours which sound immensely familiar to anyone who has ever experienced mania.

Criticism of Fry

I've scanned social media and some comment sections and was utterly unsurprised by the reactions. Trolls and MRAs (who usually hate homosexuals) wanted to use him as some kind of poster boy, because he'd been 'mobbed by SJWs'. Some women accused him of misogyny. A subset of out and proud homophobes used the opportunity to criticise his 'lifestyle' and used words like 'hissy fit', 'flouncing' etc to convey their utter disdain for what they wrongly think gay people are like. 

Some people also mocked him for what they saw as his over the top reaction to 'a little bit of criticism'. 

This sort of reaction isn't 'a little bit of criticism'. This is literally thousands of people telling you that you are a terrible person. This is especially awful for a person suffering with bipolar. This is a man with a documented history of suicide attempts, being told he is a dreadful human being.

I applaud his decision to get off Twitter, because it's probably a good idea for his mental health right now. It shows as well that he is feeling well enough to extract himself from a situation which is making his mental health worse.

The Court of Public Opinion

There's often this bizarre perception that celebrities aren't really human, or that being a little bit different entitles other people to point and laugh (and destroy other people's lives).

The Daily Mail mocked Katie Price's disabled son. Richard Littlejohn conducted a media harassment campaign against a trans teacher until she killed herself.

A food columnist called Jack Monroe, who writes entertaining books and articles about how to feed yourself on next to nothing, was bullied relentlessly for being a lesbian and later coming out as non binary. She was also criticised for being 'middle class' although why that matters, especially when it's not true, is a mystery. She had bizarre lies levelled at her - Katie Hopkins accused her of vandalising war memorials - as the child of a veteran British soldier, Monroe said she would sue. Julie Bindel accused her of promoting animal cruelty with cheap meat, even though Monroe only uses free range, organic meat, and explained that that is why she doesn't eat it very often.

In terms of mental illness, you only need look at Britney Spears and Sinead O Connor. The public sphere treats celebrities with mental illness as hilarious. They talk about them as having made bad choices, and not as being unwell.

Anger as Self Help Mechanism

Years ago, I was ranting about low pay in this country and how everyone deserved a living wage. The person I was with asked what my salary was (they were close enough to ask the question and already had misgivings about my job at the time). I told her, and she said, "Hmmmm. No wonder you're so angry about wages."

It gave me pause, and it was true.

I still believe a living wage is a right, and that a lot of welfare that is supposedly paid to 'feckless individuals' is actually a form of corporate subsidy - that wages are artificially low and rents artificially high because corporations & landlords know the government will top up criminally low salaries.

But my excessive, unproductive anger was a result of it being a very personal. I was being underpaid for my skill level, and my response should have been to move on (and I did, soon after).

Self Care & Martyrdom

Pictured: Delicious Smoothie. Does not prevent cysts.

Recently I got pretty het up about this article.

I've had a similar health scare lately, although luckily it didn't require surgery.

I don't think the lady who wrote this and I would get along.

She felt betrayed and let down when she got an ovarian cyst, because she had, "spent most of my life eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly, and strongly believed in a preventive, holistic approach to disease."

Oh fuck off. So what, that means that women who don't follow your particular brand of woo deserve ovarian cysts? At least it's consistent with the 'holistic approach to disease / I don't understand how medicine works' attitude. She also 'balks at even mild painkillers' and gets upset about the anaesthetic - I mean, would she prefer open surgery without it?

Later, she demands a metaphorical cookie for not using the morphine she is supplied with, putting it down to a 'strong constitution'. Apart from the patronising, ableist, bullshit implication that people who need pain relief are weak (as opposed to strong), there is nothing edifying or worthy about putting yourself through unnecessary pain.

Self Help

Then I realised why I was so angry about this. I do exactly the same thing.

Cysts are super common and often develop for no reason.

Yet, when I had my health scare, I convinced myself it was my fault for having a (mildly) wild youth. I had bought into the kind of bullshit the writer peddles just as much, just from the opposite direction. That kind of self blame is magical thinking, just as much as thinking vegetables & exercise will prevent cysts.

As for the pain relief - well I frequently try to endure pain when I shouldn't. I'll lie awake in agony several nights of every month, rather than take an ibouprofen, because I have the bullshit idea that NSAIDs will extend my period. I'll ignore a headache because I feel like I 'should' be able to - and other pain will simply be ignored. I'll tell myself that masking the pain will stop me from fixing the actual problem. Whereas, in reality, sometimes I have a headache because I'm tired. A paracetamol and a good night's sleep will fix the problem far more effectively than simply enduring pain, pointlessly.

Takeaway

Anger can be justified and straightforward. It can also be your brain's way of telling you something. Consider how the subject of your anger relates to your everyday life, and go from there.