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To think the tactics of CBR UK are disgusting? Trigger warning - pro life.

420 replies

MistressoftheDarkSide · 18/11/2024 08:24

I've been seething since Saturday when I encountered the organisation CBR UK on one of the busiest parts of our town centre.

CBR UK are a fundamental pro-life organisation claiming to have the interests of women traumatised by abortion at heart. Actually their roots are in the US and are underpinned by fundamentalist Christian beliefs.

Their way of educating and supporting women is to display 6 x 8 feet technicolor pictures of the aftermath of abortion in full view of women and children to get their point across.

A look at their Facebook page will prove to you I am not making this up. They place a warning sign ahead if the images, and also warn that they live film their activities, but it's obviously lip service.

They hand out leaflets and try to engage people

I challenged one of the very smug beatific older woman and suggested they must really hate women, but no, it's because they love and want to protect us apparently. And "God" - which slipped out as I took my leave and she called out God bless you. To which I responded how dare you bring God into this - and her parry was - why do you hate him that much?

Anyway, I'm posting this to make you aware that you might come up against this while doing your Christmas shopping.

Whatever your views on abortion, (Mine are pro choice and pro it's noone else's Goddamn business except a woman and her doctor) can we agree that this kind of "awareness raising" is almost psychological terrorism and should not be on our high streets in such graphic forms?

Women who have been rated, suffered traumatic medical miscarriages and are possibly accompanied by curious children don't need this shit rubbed in their faces while doing their Christmas shopping - or at any time.

AIBU?

OP posts:
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Tittat50 · 18/11/2024 17:32

@Annabella92 I think it's really important to question how accurate and real the propaganda material is. The arguments used, whatever things they say. I can easily believe there are lies, misinformation and horror stories. I don't believe fanatics like some of these protestors are working on facts. It isn't therefore likely to be an accurate representation of reality.

Annabella92 · 18/11/2024 17:24

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 14:55

The fundamental difference is that it’s in the public interest to know about wars we fund: to know about animal testing so we can choose the right products; smoking affects more than just the smoker, so it’s in the public interest to have those pictures.

There is ZERO impact of abortion on
anyone aside from the pregnant woman. And she should be free to choose if she wants to view abortion pictures. It’s not in my interest to know about an abortion another woman is having, nor you or anyone else.

Thats the difference

Right. But plenty of people on this thread would rather I was deprived access to the realities of what I was going to do. I need to know so that I can make the right decision.

Tittat50 · 18/11/2024 16:54

@EverEdith yes I agree with you on so much. That's a very nice post to read.

I feel quite negatively about most institutions we have been taught really ' care' about us tbh. Maybe this is why it's easier for me to accept the unpleasantness of something like say late term abortions. It is incredibly unpleasant, but I don't want it to be removed as an option. I accept the unpleasantness of reality in many ways.

I don't think I could ever with confidence say this is the exact point I'm now uncomfortable with it and personally wouldn't feel much emotionally. But because of the ramifications of removing choice, I feel very strongly about choice remaining. I also don't believe many truly care about the developing, growing life. This is the frustration regards protests.

When people see anger, something akin to militancy at times on this subject from pro choicers, I believe alot of that is actually fear. When I look at why I can get angry; it's fear really. The suffering would be immeasurable and I'm not someone capable of deluding myself anymore to the reality of what it would do to so many if forced to have a child.

EverEdith · 18/11/2024 16:24

@Tittat50 - thanks for the response. I get what you are saying about the foster and looked after kids. But even the government/ councils or whoever should be doing this are not doing enough. I understand that you don’t want children to come into this world just to have an awful life. It’s the wickedest joke. I think pro-lifers picked their fight and they’re running with it. It’s a difficult side to fight for as they recieve abuse for it. I respect them for that as you don’t see anyone else highlighting this. They take a lot of anger. People only have so much energy and time.
In a perfect world abortion wouldn’t be seen as the only choice. Even though I’m pro-life I can’t and wouldn’t make the decision for another woman or even worse a child. There are definitely cases where it wouldn’t be an abortion but a medical procedure that is needed for mental or physical wellbeing of the woman.
The church and all kinds of abuse - yes. Definitely, in the past and sadly probably still some now. It’s a massive betrayal because they are meant to be trying to be Christ like. But all worshippers- definitely not.

Any institution that has pathways to vulnerable people has always been a target for predators. Teaching, medicine, care, police, council / religious run children’s home and it goes on. Pick an institution and there will be some evidence somewhere.( I taught a 13 yr old who was on the sex offenders list.)
I think we disagree on how we see a clump of cells- we were all that to me. I taught science and a fertilised egg is how we all started.

This probably not a good enough to answer your question and I’m sorry.
(From what you’ve written I think if I met you in real life I would like you.)

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 16:17

Babyboomtastic · 18/11/2024 15:57

I'm comparing it with something that I do (eat meat), knowing that some people think I'm wrong for doing so because it involves taking a life.

Surely its not beyond most people's reasoning to understand that something which YOU might not think has intrinsic worth, has a huge amount of worth to someone else, and therefore from their perspective is of public interest.

Yes of course - but that doesn’t mean I care and it doesn’t mean I need to take the opinions of others into account.

Some people in the world don’t agree that I wear skirts. Am I answerable to them? No. They can fuck off. Pro lifers can fuck off too

Tittat50 · 18/11/2024 16:05

@Babyboomtastic I can see that there may be a small group who believe they are concerned for the well being of a potential life. I don't believe this is what is behind the agenda. These people are more likely the minority puppets in the wider agenda of bodily control.

I refer again to my point that life is often quite unpleasant and a choice has to be made. I adore animals, I want to be a vegan. I can't. I have to live on a medical liquid diet containing animal products. I made a decision. I accept reality; animals are treated appallingly, I don't like it. However, I've decided that my life trumps those views and I will continue to drink my products derived from animals.

No one skips into an abortion clinic for the pure joy of the experience.

Babyboomtastic · 18/11/2024 15:57

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 15:35

Given the foetus is entirely dependent on the life of the mother it doesn’t get equal say.

How on earth does a foetus inside someone else’s body affect other people? To the point they have a right to have a say on random women’s bodies and entire lives?

Why do pro lifers think that being born is the be all and end all? The fact the child is unwanted in the first place means there’s a likelihood they will lead a life of unhappiness. But hey as long as they cross the birthing finish line, fuck their welfare after they’re born, right?

Can we stop comparing pregnancy childbirth and motherhood with dietary preferences please? Vegans have no right to dictate the diets of others - in fact this is a long running joke because people get pissed off. They certainly don’t have the right to tell women what to do with their lives. I don’t give a fuck what they “believe”. Some half wit’s belief system does not trump women’s bodily autonomy.

I'm comparing it with something that I do (eat meat), knowing that some people think I'm wrong for doing so because it involves taking a life.

Surely its not beyond most people's reasoning to understand that something which YOU might not think has intrinsic worth, has a huge amount of worth to someone else, and therefore from their perspective is of public interest.

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 15:56

Why aren't these protestors fostering all those poor kids who have been sexually abused, beaten, ignored. How about the suicidal teenagers born into a life of misery? Why are they not saving these poor souls? Why so concerned about a clump of cells?
Someone please answer me this.

Because they don’t wanna help kids they wanna control women

TrixieFatell · 18/11/2024 15:50

No-one has to justify anything. It's a legal process. People can have their own feelings about it, but it's not for them to force themselves into others. I have my own opinions on other things people legally do but they are just that, my opinions.

If people find first tri abortions more palatable then please put pressure on the government to improve access and make it easier to get abortion care as opposed to making women feel guilty for a decision that has nothing to do with anyone else

Tittat50 · 18/11/2024 15:48

@EverEdith I agree with those first few paragraphs. This absolutely needs to happen. Unfortunately, it doesn't, unfortunately men always will have more freedom to do as they please and escape the consequences. I just don't see that changing soon. Removing access to abortion or making it inaccessible won't make the above change come about.
Yes, I wish SAHM were supported to stay at home if they wish. But the abortion agenda won't bring this change about.

I don't know the pro life people on here as individuals. Yet, there is an incredibly common theme of naiveté, ignorance and a refusal to really see what suffering is endured in the name of the pro life agenda, very often under the guise of religious zealotry, which equally involves the collective ignorance, naiveté and refusal of so many to see reality. This is my comparison. The church has horrifically and systematically abused children, yet so many uphold it as the purveyor of all that is right. And chooses to ignore the true suffering it brings to so many, including systematic rape of children. Most will ignore, bury heads in sand and refuse to see reality for the horror it is. This is akin to the pro life agenda. The true extent of suffering will be felt by the women, many hardly even an adult. The unwanted cells that are allowed to become children. The life for so many will be utter misery. The lives of those already alive, other children competing for resources in a care system where no one really cares. They will suffer even more. No good will ever come of this.

This refusal to accept reality is very much like people refusing to accept how rife peodophilia is in religion. Grotesque.

I accept reality. I accept that there's a point where abortion to me feels quite an unpleasant concept. How can we fully understand what is going on with a fetus at a particular point. Life is ugly. Reality is ugly. The well being of living breathing women and the potential misery of so many unborn ' children ' is always going to win for me.

I don't believe for one minute the propaganda material used is accurate in terms of what it is suggesting; gestation period of shown fetus namely. The intent is not to inform. You know this full well. It is coercive and to intimidate by any means. There are many horrors of life you don't want to see thrust in your face. However, in confident the propaganda material here won't even be correct.

Why aren't these protestors fostering all those poor kids who have been sexually abused, beaten, ignored. How about the suicidal teenagers born into a life of misery? Why are they not saving these poor souls? Why so concerned about a clump of cells?

Someone please answer me this.

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 15:44

OneAmberFinch · 18/11/2024 15:32

@Babyboomtastic really well put, thank you for articulating that.

@EvilsElsasPetSnowman It also doesn't affect me at all if someone deliberately smothers their 1 week old baby aside from being extremely upset to live in a world where that happens.

I don't know, I'm someone who has mixed feelings about abortion, on balance fine with it in first trimester and feeling it needs a justifiable reason after that. I don't think my view is very different from the average person. I don't want US style abortion politics coming here and I don't want abortion-adjacent care such as for miscarriages to be threatened.

But I'm really turned off when people go on about balls of cells and really extreme radical choice language. The anger and black-and-white thinking feels very misplaced. We are going through a moment when many people are questioning whether things they thought were true were just manufactured consensus from shouting people down, and are reacting against it. Bending a little by showing some empathy will avoid the whole thing breaking.

And what would you class as justifiable? There’d need to be a really robust framework for forcing births as opposed to granting abortions, what is unjustifiable to you?

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 15:43

OneAmberFinch · 18/11/2024 15:32

@Babyboomtastic really well put, thank you for articulating that.

@EvilsElsasPetSnowman It also doesn't affect me at all if someone deliberately smothers their 1 week old baby aside from being extremely upset to live in a world where that happens.

I don't know, I'm someone who has mixed feelings about abortion, on balance fine with it in first trimester and feeling it needs a justifiable reason after that. I don't think my view is very different from the average person. I don't want US style abortion politics coming here and I don't want abortion-adjacent care such as for miscarriages to be threatened.

But I'm really turned off when people go on about balls of cells and really extreme radical choice language. The anger and black-and-white thinking feels very misplaced. We are going through a moment when many people are questioning whether things they thought were true were just manufactured consensus from shouting people down, and are reacting against it. Bending a little by showing some empathy will avoid the whole thing breaking.

Why should I show empathy for people who are anti-women? If you’re offended by abortions don’t get one, and get over the fact other women do. It doesn’t affect you. You’ll never even know

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 15:41

OneAmberFinch · 18/11/2024 15:32

@Babyboomtastic really well put, thank you for articulating that.

@EvilsElsasPetSnowman It also doesn't affect me at all if someone deliberately smothers their 1 week old baby aside from being extremely upset to live in a world where that happens.

I don't know, I'm someone who has mixed feelings about abortion, on balance fine with it in first trimester and feeling it needs a justifiable reason after that. I don't think my view is very different from the average person. I don't want US style abortion politics coming here and I don't want abortion-adjacent care such as for miscarriages to be threatened.

But I'm really turned off when people go on about balls of cells and really extreme radical choice language. The anger and black-and-white thinking feels very misplaced. We are going through a moment when many people are questioning whether things they thought were true were just manufactured consensus from shouting people down, and are reacting against it. Bending a little by showing some empathy will avoid the whole thing breaking.

Actually crimes affect all of us. Even if we aren’t the victims, it’s in our interest to know when crimes happen on our society.

Abortion is not a crime. YOU might see it as Bad but thankfully you’re not the paragon of all virtues and don’t deserve to know about things that are Bad but also legal.

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 15:35

Babyboomtastic · 18/11/2024 15:25

There is ZERO impact of abortion on
anyone aside from the pregnant woman

Fundamentally it depends on if the fetus counts as 'anyone' because the impact on them as as big as it gets.

You might not believe they counts as 'anyone'. But for those people that do believe they are someone, then surely (irrespective of whether you share their beliefs) you can see that to them it effects more than just the pregnant woman, therefore there is public interest in it to them.

In the same way, I might think that whether or not I eat meat only effects me, because I don't see the life of a chicken as particularly important. But I can see why a vegan who thinks that all life is equal would feel differently, and to some the decision whether or not to eat meat isn't just a personal decision, but one with much wider consequences.

Given the foetus is entirely dependent on the life of the mother it doesn’t get equal say.

How on earth does a foetus inside someone else’s body affect other people? To the point they have a right to have a say on random women’s bodies and entire lives?

Why do pro lifers think that being born is the be all and end all? The fact the child is unwanted in the first place means there’s a likelihood they will lead a life of unhappiness. But hey as long as they cross the birthing finish line, fuck their welfare after they’re born, right?

Can we stop comparing pregnancy childbirth and motherhood with dietary preferences please? Vegans have no right to dictate the diets of others - in fact this is a long running joke because people get pissed off. They certainly don’t have the right to tell women what to do with their lives. I don’t give a fuck what they “believe”. Some half wit’s belief system does not trump women’s bodily autonomy.

OneAmberFinch · 18/11/2024 15:32

@Babyboomtastic really well put, thank you for articulating that.

@EvilsElsasPetSnowman It also doesn't affect me at all if someone deliberately smothers their 1 week old baby aside from being extremely upset to live in a world where that happens.

I don't know, I'm someone who has mixed feelings about abortion, on balance fine with it in first trimester and feeling it needs a justifiable reason after that. I don't think my view is very different from the average person. I don't want US style abortion politics coming here and I don't want abortion-adjacent care such as for miscarriages to be threatened.

But I'm really turned off when people go on about balls of cells and really extreme radical choice language. The anger and black-and-white thinking feels very misplaced. We are going through a moment when many people are questioning whether things they thought were true were just manufactured consensus from shouting people down, and are reacting against it. Bending a little by showing some empathy will avoid the whole thing breaking.

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 15:30

OneAmberFinch · 18/11/2024 15:11

Well, the whole point is that there is a cutoff point where we don't think there should be a choice, and currently that's 24 weeks.

It could just as well be any other date.

yes there obviously has to be a cut off date but the law doesn’t have the monopoly on moral standpoints, this doesn’t mean life starts at 24 weeks.

I don’t really care when life starts. What the pregnant woman wants is the ONLY important factor

Bigcat25 · 18/11/2024 15:29

RememberedBills · 18/11/2024 08:51

I don’t accept that it’s medical care.

Then you don't have to do it yourself.

Babyboomtastic · 18/11/2024 15:25

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 14:55

The fundamental difference is that it’s in the public interest to know about wars we fund: to know about animal testing so we can choose the right products; smoking affects more than just the smoker, so it’s in the public interest to have those pictures.

There is ZERO impact of abortion on
anyone aside from the pregnant woman. And she should be free to choose if she wants to view abortion pictures. It’s not in my interest to know about an abortion another woman is having, nor you or anyone else.

Thats the difference

There is ZERO impact of abortion on
anyone aside from the pregnant woman

Fundamentally it depends on if the fetus counts as 'anyone' because the impact on them as as big as it gets.

You might not believe they counts as 'anyone'. But for those people that do believe they are someone, then surely (irrespective of whether you share their beliefs) you can see that to them it effects more than just the pregnant woman, therefore there is public interest in it to them.

In the same way, I might think that whether or not I eat meat only effects me, because I don't see the life of a chicken as particularly important. But I can see why a vegan who thinks that all life is equal would feel differently, and to some the decision whether or not to eat meat isn't just a personal decision, but one with much wider consequences.

OneAmberFinch · 18/11/2024 15:11

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 11:09

see in my view the whole “Life begins at X weeks” is irrelevant. It’s all semantics. Women’s lives matter more. The women’s life trumps the life of a foetus. Bottom line. End of.

Well, the whole point is that there is a cutoff point where we don't think there should be a choice, and currently that's 24 weeks.

It could just as well be any other date.

DemelzaRobins · 18/11/2024 15:02

I have never had an abortion per se but I did have to end a pregnancy at 7 weeks.

It was ectopic and my fallopian tube had ruptured and I had internal bleeding. I was in emergency surgery to save my life within an hour of my scan at A&E.

It was a truly horrible thing to go through. Seeing images like the OP saw would upset me greatly. I'm holding my lovely DS whilst writing, he and I would not have been here without that surgery.

Pregnancy and child birth can be life threatening. Restrictive abortion laws can cost women's lives - women have died in countries like Ireland and Poland as doctors are afraid to act until the situation is severe. In Malta a woman with an ectopic pregnancy had to wait several days for life saving treatment as her case had to go before an 'ethics' panel for approval.

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 14:55

Babyboomtastic · 18/11/2024 14:30

I think these pictures raise a bigger question - to what extent is it appropriate to use disturbing pictures to make a point?

The pictures could be of abortions, animals being tested on, animals being killed for food, farming abuse, children killed in wars, starving babies, the lungs of smokers on cigarette packets etc.

They are literally used because they are so emotive, because they burn into our soul and make us think twice.

Being frank though, I don't want to see pictures of animals being killed for food because it would put me off meat, and its tasty. I don't want to see pictures of children killed in war because makes me feel guilty I'm not doing more to stop it.

I'm not sure some on the pro-life side do any favours with the 'its just a ball of cells' argument, as it's patently not, especially after the first trimester. It's a vit like saying that animals killed for meat don't suffer at all, or calling civilian civilian deaths in war collateral damage. It's language used to make things easier to live with, but I can see why people opposed might object to that.

Same for saying that fetuses aren't human, when they patently are a part of the life cycles of humans. It's a perfectly acceptable argument that because they are not independent they don't have the same rights as a human, but they clearly are alive, and are clearly the species that is human.

I don't want to walk down the high street and my kids see pictures of aborted fetuses, or any other graphic emotive picture. Equally, some emotional pictures have helped shape history, and for those that show the pictures, whatever they are, they believe the cause is worth it.

I don't feel comfortable saying pictures of aborted fetuses should be banned when I don't have a problem with people having to see the realities of wars we fund, just because I deem one more important than the other. That seems hypocritical. I really don't know what the answer is.

The fundamental difference is that it’s in the public interest to know about wars we fund: to know about animal testing so we can choose the right products; smoking affects more than just the smoker, so it’s in the public interest to have those pictures.

There is ZERO impact of abortion on
anyone aside from the pregnant woman. And she should be free to choose if she wants to view abortion pictures. It’s not in my interest to know about an abortion another woman is having, nor you or anyone else.

Thats the difference

HaddyAbrams · 18/11/2024 14:46

@TrixieFatell And @Itsusitsstrange Thank you. I'm at peace with what happened.

@IdylicDay I wasn't aware it was fake, so thank you. Sadly it's too late to stop it traumatising me, and others like me. Much like the photos the forced-birthers wave around are mostly fake. But I'd still find them traumatic.

Rumblytumblytea · 18/11/2024 14:45

I just looked at the photos and don’t think they are awful at . More medical?

EverEdith · 18/11/2024 14:44

@EvilsElsasPetSnowman , my next post was that there was a belief that poor = unintelligent. And I was a free school dinners kid.

EvilsElsasPetSnowman · 18/11/2024 14:42

EverEdith · 18/11/2024 14:10

Often abortion are about someone who cannot afford a child because of were they are in their life. Young, vulnerable, starting out in life, poor. Eugenics….

None of that is to do with eugenics.

Are people getting confused with economics?