Who has abortions? According to Marie Stopes Australia, it’s men... and “people”

[AngeloMysterioso]

A Marie Stopes Australia post on Facebook is attracting a bit of attention... 5 pictures, the first one just a graphic that says “Who has abortions?”. The next four slides are-

-Men with uteruses
-People who already have children
-People with a wanted pregnancy
-People who use contraception

Just shy of 800 comments... apparently GC comments were being deleted left right and centre but MSA have updated to say they are no longer “moderating” the discussion.

www.facebook.com/810047862456121/posts/3095104533950431/?extid=sleFTcNldQcFBsya&d=n

This is how they’ve captioned the post...

EDIT: TRIGGER WARNING

Unfortunately this post has attracted discriminatory and hateful comments that are simply unacceptable. As we are a very small team managing this page, we don’t feel we’re able to moderate the comment section any longer.

Our intention was never to erase women and their experiences, instead, we are aiming to highlight the stories that aren’t often told. There are many, many stories and tonight’s post was just a small sample.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this post 💙

Abortion is a sexual and reproductive health service that many people may access, and it’s important that we destigmatise those who may decide to seek an abortion.

From men with uteruses, to people who already have children - the list of people who may have abortions is endless.

Abortion is healthcare, and we will continue to help those who seek abortions access them safely.

Image description: Illustrations - A series of 5 tiles with pink backgrounds and navy blue and white text. At the bottom of each tile there is a white open door with the words “Marie Stopes Australia” next to it.
Slide 1: Who has abortions?
Slide 2: Men with uteruses. An illustration of a man with short black hair wearing a yellow t-shirt carrying a blue satchel bag.
Slide 3: People who already have children. An illustration of 2 people looking to their left. The 1st person has brown hair styled into a plait, gold hoop earrings and a yellow t-shirt. The 2nd person has short brown hair and is wearing a light green collared shirt under a dark green jumper.
Slide 4: People with a wanted pregnancy. An illustration of 2 people looking at each other. The first person has blonde hair styled into a pony tail, is wearing glasses and a light blue collared shirt under a maroon jumper. The 2nd person has black hair in a bun, wearing a green necklace with a blue pendant and a white shirt.
Slide 5: People who use contraception. An illustration of a person with short black hair wearing gold hoop earrings and a maroon turtleneck shirt. They are looking at their cup of tea. There is steam coming out of the yellow cup.

I have never seen an organization willingly offend and overlook 100% of their clientele in a single ad.

This.

Is anyone truly this stupid?? Utter offensive, craven pandering.

Has someone threatened their funding do you think?

Woman, women, girls. Not difficult to say at all, no one got hexed, no fairies lost their wings.

Unbelievable!
FGS if being inclusive is so important why not label all slides as" people"!
But there is no getting away from the fact that the only people who get pregnant or have abortions are biological women.
I sometimes dispair for my 3 teenage daughters growing up in a world where being acknowledged as a woman is increasingly not seen as a positive identity.

They didn't use the word woman because that would be using the actual adult human female meaning of the word which would exclude transwomen.

@BewilderedDoughnut

I think as a society we should be more inclusive and change the way we speak and communicate. So I don’t think it’s so much the ‘men with uteruses’ line, more the fact that at no point did it mention women anywhere. Just ‘people’.

Had it said ‘people with uteruses’ I think it would have been better. Then men and women are all of equal footing.

I’m a woman, I’m happy to be referred to as a person or a people.

And what about the women who want to be referred to as women. Many of the women who need abortions will have become pregnant through rape. That rape occurred because they were women. The men that raped this women didn’t do it because they just wanted somewhere to stick their dick, they didn’t it because they wanted to rape a woman. Those women are now being treated as if their sex is irrelevant, even though that way they were raped in the first place.

What Marie Stopes Australia is doing, is abusing women further. This is not inclusive language, this is cruelty to women.

There’s some numpty on Facebook dribbling about how it’s always about women and transmen are valid.

Yes abortion is surprisingly about women. And that’s ok.

What I'm taking away from this is that if women can be erased and ignored and men centred even on the issue of provision of abortion, we have no toehold left on anything, anywhere.

Time for the tide to turn.

Imagine this lot on a sinking Titanic. Who'd be in the lifeboat beating others off with the oars?

People who already have children 😂

That describes my ex and I. I wonder if he’ll ever need an abortion 🤔

Look at the pushback on the Facebook post though, now they've stopped moderating the comments. Look at how many women, under their own names, have had enough of this. We've a long way to go to reverse all the capture, but this is heartening

What the actual fuck

Women have these services for a reason. They rely on them at the most vulnerable time, when life gets very difficult due to being born female.

What kind of idiotic and cruel charity alienates, hurts, confuses and pisses off the very people that need their services at a time when they are the most isolated?

When we seek an abortion, for whatever reason, women are in desperate need of compassion and understanding and empathy - not nonsensical and offensive virtue signalling shite.

Marie Stopes - 50 years of helping men access safe abortions. So far zero cases and counting.

Oh no, I never told my son he might have a uterus and need an abortion one day.

Is woman a dirty word nowadays? Taboo and offensive?

its frustrating that women are being erased

More infuriating still that opportunities to discuss our erasure are also wiped out.

They really dont want us to join together so we need to keep fighting it

All they need to say is 'women and transmen' or 'girls, women and transmen'
It's clear to understand and includes transmen without erasing women. I can't really see anyone objecting to it either.
The fact that they can't do the most simple obvious thing really makes their motives look very suspect, in my opinion.

Alll they need to say is 'women and transmen' or 'girls, women and transmen

Transwomen would object. And you mustn't hurt their feelings.

• There’s some numpty on Facebook dribbling about how it’s always about women and transmen are valid.

It seems nowadays it's only women who aren't considered to be 'valid'.

I'm afraid I would now argue for women and girls (which includes transmen and transboys) rather than women/girls and transmen/transboys.
This is not because I want to be an arsehole but because I think the language has got to be as precise as we can make it. Anything less than precise creates a loophole and sooner or later unscrupulous people turn up in a bus and drive straight through it.

So the first slide is 'men with uteruses'. Fucking hell. Men don't have a uterus. So sick of this shit

It makes my fucking blood boil that they strip the words woman and woman from being associated with our biology in case it hurts the feelings of adult males.

Just fuck off.

It's really fascinating to see how a very small group of TRAs have managed to change the meaning of words this way, almost in the mainstream. If I take what they say seriously, then 'woman' is simply a personality label and has nothing to do with living in a female bod which is now gender-neutral. Rather, 'woman' might be about liking pink and sparklies, makeup and so on.

Even the answer Marie Stopes Australia gives shows that they view the term that way, as an identity.

What is the acceptable alternative term for those 'people', however they might identify, who are biologically female? It seems that it does not exist.

@Kljnmw3459

Is woman a dirty word nowadays? Taboo and offensive?

Yes, did you miss the memo?

Germaine Greer has it right