Mumsnet demanding that I change my nickname

[AbortionFairyGodmother]

Suddenly after posting on several transgender issue related threads, I am getting a note in my email inbox:

"We wanted to drop you a line about your Mumsnet nickname, because we've have had a few reports from other posters about it and how it has caused distress.

Our aim is to make parents' lives easier by pooling and sharing advice and support, and while we're all for free speech, we really don't feel that this nickname is in the spirit of our philosophy.
We're asking therefore if you can change it please. "

Yeah, well, a lot of parents need abortions. My nickname is here because I am an abortion activist who sends abortion pills to women (mostly mothers!!) who desperately need them and are not in areas where they can access them.

Watch this, women. This is what censorship looks like. No "misgendering" people, no getting too far out of line, no being too public about your activism. Because it will offend someone. Best to make my nickname something like KittensAndFlowersLOL, right?

And sorry, I shouldn't have put the quote marks in there, because those were not the OP's exact words, and I get very irritated when people do that to me.

'P.S. the name originally comes from a woman in South America who I shipped pills to. She had seven kids. I guess her need doesn't count as much as some posh mumsnet moms' need to take offense. For women on the bottom of the economic ladder, an abortion fairy godmother isn't offensive, but something you might wish for desperately. What a classist place this is.'

That was the OP's actual comment.

Several points most of which, if not all, have already been put.

1. Using a name to advertise a service or product is out of order.

1. People can very well approve of choice and the right to abortion without wanting to see the word abortion all the time. It's an upsetting thing however necessary or good it can be.

If I sold a really good product that cleaned the shit off nappies for example, it may be a revolutionary product but I wouldn't use 'shitoffnappies' as my username as shit isn't a very nice thing to think about.

It's very simple.

And the OP has changed her username.

So all's well now.

Your username is vile, and i would have thought sending women abortion pills without medical exam is dangerous actually, so much for the sisterhood eh. Its like backstreet abortions.com

You should be ashamed of yourself

The OP should have been banned! peddling abortion pills on here - fuck me, if i came on here and tried to advertise my DP's business i would be given a stiff talking to no doubt, and if i continued to do so and made a whole thread about the right to do so, i'd be kicked off the site.

I don't like the original username. I think it flippant and trivialising.

I agree I'm also not sure the provision of abortifacient pills without seeing the patient is problematic; and probably illegal.

I also think it was stupid and inconsiderate to try to put the MN web-site owners in a position where they were hosting the OP's service.

Actually lem has a point. I didn't think of it that way. My DP has asked me plenty of times to talk about his buisness on here which I've always refused.

I've never sold any product. I've only given things away.

Can't believe this peddling of abortion pills is being condoned and in fact applauded. These women probably don't have access to good medical facilities if things go wrong. What if they take the pill at the wrong stage of pregnancy and it causes fetal abnormality or other side effects. Don't suppose that happens in the world of fairy godmothers.

I disagree. Lots of women in Ireland send away for abortion pills; it's an absolutely essential service for those who can't afford to go to England.

abortion are you american? Isn't what you're doing a felony?

www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/02/19/jennifer_whalen_is_arrested_for_ordering_abortion_pills_for_her_teenage.html

Fairy godmother, I suggest you advertise your business somewhere else.
And oh yeah , your name is very distressing.

I am sure what this person is doing is illegal and against medical advice. People taking these pills should be under the supervision of a qualified medical practitioner. Horrified at this tbh.

So where are you getting these pills? as far as im aware they don't sell them in boots!

Doesn't matter if you're selling them or not, it's the dispensing of them which is illegal.

I do think the state of abortion provision in USA,
Ireland and I'm sure plenty of other countries is awful. If I was the mother in the link I provided Id probably have done what she did, and Id be in prison for it now no doubt.

I dunno I'm on the fence about it.

Medically speaking my head is telling me if a woman does have complications after taking misoprostal she can just attend her nearest hospital and say shes having a miscarriage. And then get treated for that.

I do feel that activism would be better placed protesting for relaxation of abortion laws and more clinics. But I guess you can do both. And doing this doesn't help women in the mean time.

Supplying contraceptive pills to a woman undergoing a crisis pregnancy is pointless. MNHQ, I hope, won't dream of reporting the OP.

GeorgeYeats Right. I'm just gobsmacked by some of these posters.

Yeah me too. Coming from a country where abortion is illegal, those sort of posts strike me as immensely blinkered

I've no problem with the nickname. We have Anyfucker who could be offensive to some of our more sensitive posters.

I really want MN to report the OP. I do think the OP needs to be more careful telling a public forum what she's doing.

Womb I prefer the new name, because the old was ambiguous and could have been an anti-abortion activist. I wasn't offended, just unclear.

re trans:
I've only recently become aware that many trans activists are hostile to women-only spaces. Before, I'd lazily assumed we were always allies.
As a feminist, I wish to defend the rights of women to our own safe spaces such as loos, refuges, changing rooms. I'm a feminist before any other "ist".
I think we can debate such topics quite freely on Mumsnet;
If that should change, I'm sure nearly all feminists here would vigorously defend a sister from victimisation and banning.

re abortion:
Ideally, every woman should have safe access in their own country. When they don't have this, those women who can afford to do so travel abroad for an abortion; for the others it's either the knitting needle or sending away for pills.

The religiously driven legislators in some countries (including Northern Ireland and RoI) prevent women having choice. Campaign for reproductive rights there, so the women won't want internet pills.

I get the impression that those who want Mumsnet to report the OP - to whom ? - are outraged at abortion, rather than about whether the health risks of these pills would be greater than giving birth.
< cynical old bag >