Anti-choicers, that is. In the arguments with anti-choicers that I get into so frequently these days, there are two trends I notice. They try to make us ‘admit’ to our pro-choice views, as if they were something to be ashamed of*. And they demonise us.

Oh, do they demonise us. The vitriol I have experienced from anti-choicers is shocking in its intensity and blatant hatred.  They call us murderers. They tell us that we hate children, that we want to destroy innocent life, that we have no respect for life. They tell us that we are uncaring monsters.

I think I know why.

If we are not uncaring monsters, then we might have a point to be listened to. If we do care deeply for the welfare of infants, then there must be a genuine reason why we support abortion rights. If it is possible to respect life and also the right to access abortion? Then they might be wrong.

The only way that extreme anti-choice perspectives can justify themselves is to ignore the reality of the people who have abortions and those who support them. You can’t justify forcing someone to carry a pregnancy that makes them suicidal, or that destroys their body physically. Condemning someone to spend months growing a fetus who is doomed to die at birth is deeply inhumane. There is nothing but cruelty in telling a rape victim that for every minute of every day for 9 months she will be forced to carry her rapist’s child, regardless of her consent.

And yes, telling any person that they have no choice but to give their body up for a pregnancy they actively do not want is heartless, and destroys any notion of our right to bodily integrity and self-determination.

But if every pro-choicer is nothing more than an uncaring monster with no respect for life who takes joy in killing babies? You don’t have to engage with any of that.

That’s why they call us murderers.

*I’m not.