{"id":29970,"date":"2016-08-11T21:14:47","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T01:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=29970"},"modified":"2016-08-11T21:22:14","modified_gmt":"2016-08-12T01:22:14","slug":"this-pro-life-simone-biles-meme-gets-it-all-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/08\/this-pro-life-simone-biles-meme-gets-it-all-wrong.html","title":{"rendered":"This Pro-Life Simone Biles Meme Gets It All Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image\u00a0features a picture of Simone Biles with this text: <\/em><\/p>\n

In 1997, a girl born to an \u201cunfit\u201d drug-addicted mother and abandoned by her father was Planned Parenthood\u2019s perfect target. <\/em><\/p>\n

Would later become arguably the best gymnast in the world.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Earlier today, I\u00a0came upon the above\u00a0image on Facebook. There are at least two things wrong with this meme. First, the meme\u00a0mischaracterizes Planned Parenthood. Second, it forgets who actually<\/em>\u00a0targets children like Simone.<\/p>\n

Neither Planned Parenthood nor any pro-choice activist I know of would call a woman \u201cunfit.\u201d Why is the term included in the meme, then? Because pro-life activists spend a lot of time and effort drawing connections between Planned Parenthood and the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. Unfortunately for them, their efforts fail.\u00a0Eugenicists\u00a0of the early twentieth century worked to sterilize women who were considered unfit. In contrast, Planned Parenthood works\u00a0to empower women to make their own reproductive decisions.<\/p>\n

Some years ago, I spent time volunteering<\/a> at Planned Parenthood as a counselor. I remember my training well. If a woman\u00a0came in for an abortion\u00a0but expressed a desire to keep her pregnancy, we were instructed to do everything we could to help her find the resources she needed to do so. We had brochures on rehab programs, information on qualifying for\u00a0pregnancy medicaid\u00a0and\u00a0subsidized childcare. Had\u00a0a poor, drug-addicted mother come into the clinic for an appointment and\u00a0said she wanted to keep her pregnancy, but didn\u2019t know how she could possibly do so, we would have moved heaven and earth<\/em> to make it happen.<\/p>\n

Being pro-choice is about enabling women to control their reproduction\u2014to choose whether and when to have children. Ensuring that women who want to do so are able to keep their pregnancies is central to that mission. Planned Parenthood does not go about\u00a0targeting \u201cunfit\u201d mothers with abortions. Instead, the organization focuses on\u00a0empowering women\u00a0to make their own reproductive decisions and ensuring that they have access to the resources they need to do so. That mission is\u00a0antithetical to calling any group de facto \u201cunfit.\u201d<\/p>\n

I actually do know a group that uses words like\u00a0\u201cunfit,\u201d though.\u00a0Republicans in several states have moved to keep<\/a> anyone on drugs from qualifying for welfare,\u00a0literally taking food out of the mouths of children like Simone. Prominent Republicans such as Rick Santorum have argued<\/a> for denying teen mothers welfare eligibility altogether, which would\u00a0disqualify women like Simone\u2019s biological mother. Many\u00a0Republicans have argued that unmarried women\u2014like Simone\u2019s biological mother\u2014should keep their legs shut, and that producing children like Simone was irresponsible and bred crime<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know whether Simone\u2019s biological mother was poor or on government programs. I do know that\u00a0blackness has long been\u00a0woven into<\/a> Republican rhetoric about \u201cwelfare queens,\u201d and that drugs, blackness, criminality, and unwed motherhood are often mixed together in toxic stereotypes. I also know that Republicans do not look fondly on women who have children out of wedlock<\/a>. Simone was the sort of child Republicans\u00a0would prefer not be born in the first place. Simone\u2019s biological mother is the kind of woman Republicans point to and stigmatize when\u00a0creating laws to repeal welfare or discourage premarital sex.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, Simone Biles wasn\u2019t Planned Parenthood\u2019s perfect target. Instead, she\u00a0was the Republican Party\u2019s<\/em> perfect target.<\/p>\n

This is exactly the reason I lost faith in the pro-life movement<\/a> years ago.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neither Planned Parenthood nor any pro-choice activist I know of would call a woman “unfit.” Why is the term included in the meme, then? Because pro-life activists spend a lot of time and effort drawing connections between Planned Parenthood and the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. Unfortunately for them, their efforts fail. Eugenicists of the early twentieth century worked to sterilize women who were considered unfit. In contrast, Planned Parenthood works to empower women to make their own reproductive decisions.<\/p>\n

Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":29974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[106,208,602],"class_list":["post-29970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-marriage-2","tag-race","tag-welfare"],"yoast_head":"\nThis Pro-Life Simone Biles Meme Gets It All Wrong<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Neither Planned Parenthood nor any pro-choice activist I know of would call a woman "unfit." Why is the term included in the meme, then? Because pro-life activists spend a lot of time and effort drawing connections between Planned Parenthood and the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. Unfortunately for them, their efforts fail. Eugenicists of the early twentieth century worked to sterilize women who were considered unfit. 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