Abortion Truck

[lavagal]

If this has been discussed before, sorry. I had the pleasure of riding along side the abortion truck last night with my daughters strapped in their booster seats behind me. They are 3 and 5 years old. They wanted to know about the hand on the dime. They wanted to know what was "she" holding.

I can understand where the anti-abortion people are coming from, but I've never had an abortion. So why should I be punished and be forced to see this and have my little kids subject to these images? I'm a firm believer in the holier than thou will be in for a big surprise when they meet their maker when told what complete assholes they were while here.

[scrivener]

Re: abortion truck

I'm a firm believer in the holier than thou will be in for a big surprise when they meet their maker when told what complete assholes they were while here.

The "abortion truck" (great name for it, by the way) is an exercise in extremely poor taste, but--and I'm just playing devil's advocate here--it's coming from the same place as those pictures of cigarette-smokers' lungs I see on the bus and in magazines and on television. Hey, I don't smoke, so why should I be subjected to these awful pictures? And unlike your kids' incidental viewing of the abortion pictures, my exposure to the lung pictures was intentional, and it was done to me in school by grownups who were supposed to care about me. That TV-commercial with the elderly lady who smokes through the tube in her trachea? Now, come on. That's in at least as poor taste as the abortion pictures, wouldn't you agree?

I'm hesitant to jump into this conversation, because use of "the A-word" can be a community-killer in discussion groups such as this. I've been on mailing lists where the groups have survived only because everyone involved has agreed never to use "the A-word." Even that agreement itself was enough to cause a few people to leave.

Still, I'd like to suggest (very, very gently) that when you accuse the abortion-truck people of claiming to be "holier-than-thou," you may be claiming the same thing for yourself. Know what I mean?

[dick]

Re: abortion truck

I view that thing as a spectacular rolling billboard for free speech. I absolutely don't agree with the message, nor its delivery, but think everytime I see it that they have every right in the world to be driving around with their ideals plastered all over the sides of a gas-guzzling (nay diesel-guzzling) truck. I think one of the more interesting parts is that the truck has Kamehameha Schools stickers on it. I often wonder what they (Kamehameha) think about being somehow associated with it? I'm just glad that their silly airplane banners never got off the ground.

[lavagal]

Re: abortion truck

I hear ya guys. My husband piped up that it was a Chinese food truck but thankfully I was able to get the girls off to looking at the fishing boats in the harbor. Then I gave him one of these glares that didn't work, of course. Didn't notice the Kam Schools stickers on them. Someone tell Ann Botticelli and DJ Mailer! (Probably two women who definitely know the wisdome of when to stay mum).

[AbsolutChaos]

Re: abortion truck

My parents probably would have been upset about me seeing the "abortion truck" not because of its pictures (I'm from a medical family and am a medical professional myself) but because it is a consequence of having sex, a subject that was extemely taboo in my family. I wasn't allowed to watch kissing on tv in high school, wear make up, wear tank tops/shorts of certain length, go to movies at night because people might be making out in the theater, or even to school dances.

Abortion is a touchy subject in the US, but so is sex, so to have pics plastered up of abortion forces the subject of sex to be brought up too. Whether this is good or bad, I'm not sure.

[poi cocktail :)]

Re: abortion truck

just that it was on a food service truck, the "joke", would suffice me thinks.

manapua anyone?

[AbsolutChaos]

Re: abortion truck

The "abortion truck" (great name for it, by the way) is an exercise in extremely poor taste, but--and I'm just playing devil's advocate here--it's coming from the same place as those pictures of cigarette-smokers' lungs I see on the bus and in magazines and on television. Hey, I don't smoke, so why should I be subjected to these awful pictures? And unlike your kids' incidental viewing of the abortion pictures, my exposure to the lung pictures was intentional, and it was done to me in school by grownups who were supposed to care about me. That TV-commercial with the elderly lady who smokes through the tube in her trachea? Now, come on. That's in at least as poor taste as the abortion pictures, wouldn't you agree?

I'm hesitant to jump into this conversation, because use of "the A-word" can be a community-killer in discussion groups such as this. I've been on mailing lists where the groups have survived only because everyone involved has agreed never to use "the A-word." Even that agreement itself was enough to cause a few people to leave.

Still, I'd like to suggest (very, very gently) that when you accuse the abortion-truck people of claiming to be "holier-than-thou," you may be claiming the same thing for yourself. Know what I mean?

The difference between the smoking advertising and the abortion advertising, however, lies in the difference between its social acceptability, doesn't it? Try getting away with those same anti-smoking ads in the 50s--there would probably be just as much controversy and protest and outcry as there still is about abortion today (now that it can be talked about more openly--sorta).

Currently, smoking as a bad behavior is more accepted by the vast majority, so there are fewer people to raise a public outcry against in-your-face anti-tobacco campaigns. Most people have to acknowledge that smoking and second-hand smoking are unhealthy, according to most medical studies. Most of us who don't smoke realize the anti-smoking "shock pics" aren't directed toward us. Those who do smoke, while resentful or made to feel guilty or annoyed, probably are ok with the ads if they prevent children from picking up the habit. Most parents are comfortable with discussing the subject of not smoking with their kids at almost any age.

In this day and age, abortion, on the other hand, is still controversial, with people for and against it being almost evenly split. There's the whole issue of sex behind it too, which makes people in the US uncomfortable, especially parents, who are reluctant to discuss the topic at all until they feel their child is ready. For many, abortion is more of a "private issue;" there have not, to my knowledge, been too any medical studies that show abortion as having any physical health concerns similar to second hand smoke. With public opinion being so divided, as Scrivner brings up, the subject is often a friendship/relationship wrecker. For many, it's also very tied up in religious beliefs.

Having the subject splattered accross a truck in such an in-your-face way makes many people feel unhappy. We feel like we are being attacked personally by such campaigns. Most of us have learned to keep our opinions on abortion hidden, due to our fear of how others around us react to the same subject. It's such an emotional subject, tied as it often is to our personal beliefs about sex, morals, and religion--I'm not sure if children should be exposed to it through graphic pics on the side of trucks. It's still too complicated of an issue, whether one is for or against it. And for most adults, our minds on the subject are probably made up, pictures or no pics, so the only people left to influence are the undecided or uninformed, aka children.

[Ty Lee]

Re: Abortion Truck

It's (the truck) a last-ditch-effort to a loosing war. Unfortunatly, the the first battles were lost at home with parenting.