Washington, DC--Spank Media
Believe it or not, the pro-life movement is in a quandary. It's true that most pro-life advocates are brimming with hope and anxiousness these days, given the seemingly inevitable confirmation of a conservative judge to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court. And it's true that decades after the court cleared the way for abortion rights, many in the movement now sense the ultimate achievement is within reach. But contrary to what seems like a solidly unified group, pro-lifers face serious divisions within their own ranks.
"Basically, no one agrees on what to do after Roe is overturned," says Bob Smellmack, a veteran pro-life advocate and executive director of the Texas-based think tank Babies Don't Commit Suicide, Mothers Kill Them. "Right now we're rallying around Alito, staying the course, and crossing our fingers, but even light discussions about post-Roe life reveal some pretty huge cracks. It seems we have many different ideas about how to carry on the messages we've been promoting for so long."
The differences are stark. For conventional pro-lifers, the end of Roe is an opportunity to funnel energy and resources into further strengthening the pro-life base and the specific foundations upon which the movement was founded: protection of the fetus for Jesus. This wing envisions the formation of tightly knit watchdog groups to track the moves of abortion advocates once Roe is buried. A logical step, perhaps, but for many significant players in the movement, it's just one slice of the pie. For these advocates, the point is to capitalize on the fall of Roe and expand the scope of the pro-life cause. Branching out, they argue, will finally allow pro-lifers to attack nonabortion-related issues under the pretense of "choosing life."
It may seem radical, but the post-Roe thinking of the "expansionists" is gaining traction within the rank and file. Although they take their cue in part from promoters of the more popular "consistent life ethic," expansionists appeal to those intent on action and achieving results as soon as possible, regardless of "stupid liberal rules." Accordingly, well-placed sources who spoke exclusively to Spank Media claim that secret cells of Jesus warriors are being recruited to span the country and wage "the mother of all jihads on out-of-control, liberal anti-life laws and establishments" as varied as euthanasia and Comedy Central.
"America will finally be conquered for god," said one recruit we interviewed. "The armies of heaven will pummel this country into total compliance. When Roe is decimated we will go to war to make sure America chooses life all day, every day. In praise of life, we're gonna kick this country in the face."
"When you talk to some of these folks, it's easy to imagine plastic surgery or liposuction clinics as targets of bombings and other violence if a post-abortion pro-life movement goes haywire," says Mac Dubois, a journalist who's been covering abortion issues for a decade. "These really are the visionaries in the movement--the ones who've always seen the overturning of Roe Vs. Wade as the
first step in a larger effort." According to Dubois, who interviewed pro-life and abortion-rights leaders extensively for his 2002 book
Roe Vs. Wade: Thirty Years On, radicals are a lot closer than outsiders realize to steering the pro-life movement in this direction, effectively opening up countless "pro-life" possibilities.
As Dubois puts it, "It may sound insane to millions of Americans, but to follow this thinking, why should obese people do anything to lose weight? Why reject the fat god has blessed you with? Just who are you to meddle with god's work?" Liposuction, Dubois explains, is perceived as an inhumane procedure created to please the iconic images of liberal Hollywood. It doesn't enhance appearance, it cow-tows to the influence peddling of the same Western doctors who prescribe birth control. "And this is to say nothing of breast enhancement--or reduction--or nose jobs for teenage girls, or those so-called mommy tucks." Just because pro-life radicals curbed the use of violence in recent years, Dubois contends, doesn’t mean the "crazier fucks" in the movement have gone to lunch.
To the contrary, documents and transcriptions of recent pro-life meetings obtained by Spank Media read like the expansionists' ultimate wish list. Moreover, radical pro-lifers are already at work on strategies to achieve the following imperatives: a complete ban on "unnecessary cosmetic surgery"; the abolition of condoms and all other forms of birth control; the outlawing of "ungodly, anti-life speech"; the extermination of PBS; the end of veganism; the prohibition of satire; and the installation of the Reverend Pat Robertson as President of the United States.
For conventionalists like Smellmack, the rise of expansionisism is the nightmare scenario. "For years we've been trying to put the wishes of god and Jesus Christ, our lord and savior, smack dab in front of America’s sinful heart. Now these quacks are threatening to snatch and exploit our positive messaging at the moment of the ultimate victory." Smellmack, a former pest control specialist from Dallas, worries that the young mothers he hopes to reach in post-Roe America will be poisoned by radical "Jesus jihadists" at full throttle. "Imagine, for example" he says, "counseling a young woman about how the glory of god is manifested in the baby she has no means to support, and whose father is nowhere to be found. Imagine having that conversation a day after her friend is maimed because some radicals decide to fire-bomb the Ear Pierce Hut at the mall. That's just not how some of us pro-lifers picture success."
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With thanks to Mac
