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Pro-life advocates have three days to raise one million dollars to stop a woman from having an abortion. That's the challenge an anonymous graduate student has posted online. "How much would you pay to stop an abortion?" she asks.
"I am a twenty-six-year-old female and I am currently 7 weeks pregnant. I have every intention of having an abortion, but I'm giving you a chance to stop it," the woman says in her post. The countdown begins on July 7 and will run for 72 hours. She specifically chose that time frame because it's the same amount of time her state requires a woman to wait after a consultation with a doctor before she can have an abortion.
This is not a greedy grab for money. The poster says if the full amount is raised she will put it all in a trust for her baby, who will receive it when he or she reaches the age of 21.
If the full amount is not raised, all the money will be returned to donors.
It's like a political Kickstarter -- or a ransom note, depending on where you stand on the issue of abortion. Last year's Gallup poll shows Americans are evenly split on the issue: 47 percent identify as pro-choice while 46 percent identify as pro-life. "Mathematically this means that every one of the 157 million Americans that identify as pro-life needs to donate less than one cent to stop this abortion," the anonymous woman says.
So what's the point of this fund-raiser? It's to call the religious right's bluff. If pro-life individuals truly care about preserving life they will back that value with money, the poster seems to be reasoning. But that's not what she thinks pro-life advocates really care about most.
The pro-life movement cares very little about saving lives and far more about controlling women by minimizing their choices in a wide variety of ways, not the least of which is readily available reproductive health care.
It's interesting how people are willing to picket clinics, shout at other human beings, donate to pro-life organizations, push for strict abortion laws, and even (in extreme cases) kill doctors who perform abortions. But what about those lives they're supposedly trying to save? After that baby is born ... what then? How much do we care about the quality of that child's life?
There seems to be a distinct drop-off of concern within the pro-life movement once a baby is delivered.
I think the poster is wise to put the money in a trust for her baby. But really, I think she should be using that money to raise her child. The mother's own welfare is usually disregarded in this debate. Who cares if she's healthy, who cares about her future? She's spoiled goods, unworthy of a decent life for even considering an abortion -- for getting knocked up in the first place, right? If pro-lifers care so much about LIFE, why don't they show more concern for the lives of women who are already here?
We'll see if the money actually gets raised. I predict it won't be. No one likes feeling blackmailed by a political stunt. But then, if you don't contribute, you'll know you could have saved a life -- but you chose not too. What does that say about your integrity? The clock starts on July 7.
How do you feel about this challenge? Will she raise the money? Do enough people care?
Image via Robert Mandel/Shutterstock
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