Anti-Choice Activist claims she "was sadly stripped of her child"

[bertha katzenengel]

Washington Post article: South Dakota Becomes Abortion Focal Point

Kayla Brandt had an abortion three years ago and instantly hated having done it. Now, hoping to stop other women from making the same choice, she is a public advocate for the most severe abortion ban in the nation.

"I don't want anyone to feel what I did," Brandt says. . . .

People such as Brandt, a 29-year-old financial auditor, who described a period of quiet misery after an abortion about three years ago. When the doctor finished, Brandt said, she felt an emptiness that led to a long year of grief. . . .

"I was in a relationship and panicked and got scared and ashamed, and thought an abortion was the means to fix my mistake," said Brandt, who came to see herself as a "mother who was sadly stripped of her child."

Dear Miss Brandt:

It is ridiculous for you to use the passive voice when referring to your abortion. If you must claim that the abortion stripped you of your child, you must take responsibility for having had that abortion. Use of the passive voice conveniently "strips" you of your responsibility.

You should say: "I had an abortion, stripping myself of my child. I am ashamed" etc.

Signed,

Bertha
Pro-Family Pro-Choice

I can't believe this woman. "Sadly stripped of her child." She obviously has to place blame for having had an abortion and it seems to me that she chooses to place it at the feet of the pro-choice world. That's ridiculous. The shame is hers. The blame is hers.

/rant

[ComerPerro]

1. I am not interested in anything that murdering bitch has to say

[LynneSin]

5. I wouldn't call her murdering - what was murdered?

I would call her a dumbass.

I mean she was given a waiting period to think abou ther decision and still went ahead with it and now wants to insert herself as a martyr for the anti-choice movement.

Not sure what was being murdered here but I do see alot of stupidity

[warrens]

9. I think that was a hoist on own petard statement

As a "pro-life," she would probably never shy away from calling someone else a murderer. So why hand the bitch any slack?

[LynneSin]

12. I can appreciate that but by using it we're buying into their argument

and I'm not about to stoop to their level.

They want to see murder then should watch Spike Lee's documentary on Katrina and see all the people who were truly murdered because no one had a plan to help get those people evacuated out of the city

[LostinVA]

35. Bingo, Lynne

[damntexdem]

25. Let's look at the bright side:

a poor baby wasn't born into her control.

[ComerPerro]

13. Well, obviously she murdered her child. Because, by her own admission

abortion is murder.

[noonwitch]

2. I'm not particularly sympathetic

She needs to take responsibility for her own actions. It's not the ob/gyn's fault she got pregnant under less than perfect circumstances. The ob/gyn didn't come to her house, tie her to a bed, and forcibly perform an abortion on her.

She didn't want a baby then, so she didn't have one. That was her choice.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. So, Miss Brandt, because you chose to do what you did and are now

ashamed, you think you have the answers for all women. I also had an abortion 29 years ago and have never had a doubt about having done the moral thing. The vast majority of women who have undergone abortion do not have remorse or regrets and face up to the decision they made. More women who gave up their children to adoption express the emotion of 'grief' or sadness. Shall we stop all adoptions because of that? You are self-centered and here's a news flash: the world does not revolve around you.

[Mad_Dem_X]

4. She made her choice, and now

she wants to deny other women that same right? Typical RW hypocrite.

[LynneSin]

6. This is so so so why EC is a must

I mean, I'm not sure what her circumstances were that caused her to get pregnant; however, if something happened to me where I accidently had unprotected sex I know I would want the option to deal with it right there on the spot instead of waiting weeks, perhaps months to decide.

[Nobody]

50. Or worse yet...

...waiting weeks, maybe months, maybe an entire trimester waiting for the courts to let you decide instead of someone else deciding for you.

The word "instantly" made me giggle. "Instantly" she regretted it? I was reminded of one of the most obnoxiously vitriolic harassers at the clinic I escort at. Every so often she claims that she herself had an abortion and regrets it and wishes she could have 20 children to make up for it. She's past menopause so she can't deliver on that promise.

Someone posted here a while back about seeing one of the protestors bringing in her own daughter for an abortion and the following week, both mother and daughter were back in action calling all the other women murdering whores.

Plan B is now OTC. When it becomes available, I'm buying a package just to have it handy.

[TlalocW]

7. This is bullshit

Chances are she was always anti-choice, but when she got pregnant when she didn't want to be, she was somehow better than all the hussies and sluts who normally get abortions. Her abortion was somehow moral; everyone else's wasn't. So she got it done and wasn't affected one way or another, but she's going to feed us a cock and bull story that she's filled with regret so she can hopefully strip every woman of their rights.

TlalocW

[smokey nj]

8. Perhaps Ms. Brandt should stop hanging around with misogynistic

religious nuts who make her feel bad about herself and leave the rest of us alone. I'm perfectly capable of determining the course of my life without Kayla Brandt's help.

[Gormy Cuss]

10. Dear Miss Brandt

I'm sorry that you made the wrong choice for you, but you had the choice. You are welcome to speak publicly about it and let others know that sometimes in crisis we can make the wrong choice. However,please don't think that your bad experience means you are qualified to make the choice for everyone else.

Signed,
G. Cuss

[Sherman A1]

29. Well Said

[CoffeeCat]

11. I fell off of a skateboard once...

....when I was younger. I chipped my tooth, broke my arm and I was embarrassed.

I don't ever, EVER want anyone to feel they way I did--when I fell off of that skateboard.

I call for a ban on all skateboards and skateboarding. I will not stop until every last skateboard is destroyed.

I do this because I care. I do this because I assume that everyone who rides a skateboard--or falls off of a skateboard--will FEEL the EXACT emotions that I did and experience the IDENTICAL physical and emotional trauma that I did.

I do it for the children.

[prole_for_peace]

27. i was in a very bad relationship one time.

i got hurt very badly and it took about a year to recover. i don't want anyone else to every go through that so i want to ban all relationships in the hope of saving everyone of the pain of a breakup.

[Ilsa]

34. I love your analogy, and I have one:

One time when I was 17 I ate some pepperoni pizza and got really sick from it. Therefore, I think all pepperoni pizza making should be banned in the US.

Yeah, that's the ticket. That'll work.

[prole_for_peace]

37. i just ate a HUGE bowl of cookies 'n cream ice cream

now i feel bad physically and mentally (i am supposed to be exercising) so cookies 'n cream ice cream should be banned so no one will "have too" feel the way i feel right now.

[NuttyFluffers]

45. tsk, tsk, this is all still active voice...

it would be, "i was an outdoors enthusiast who had my tooth broken, arm twisted, and robbed of dignity -- by a skateboard!"

or, "i was a loving, sexy person but foisted upon with betrayal, rejection, and hurt -- all because of a relationship!"

or, "as a consumer of food, i was given agonizing heartburn, stripped of a night's sleep, and shaken of my faith to consume again by the cruel antagonist -- a pepperoni pizza!"

or, "i was a lover of dessert, but was rendered physically and mentally ill by an abusive system of allowing inordinantly large quantities of cookies 'n cream ice cream to be vended into the hands of unsuspecting customers!"

see... this is the *magic* of passive voice. or, "the voice expressed through passivity provides a magic unto this situation."
:D

[Nobody]

52. Ooh ooh ohh! Can I play?

My sports injury stripped me of my ability to walk.

Oh the humiliation I endured as I had to struggle through the skyway on crutches for SIX WHOLE WEEKS! and not counting the THREE WHOLE WEEKS that I was on crutches before the knee surgery.

Oh the embarrassment as I, a formerly able-bodied person, had to SIT IN THE DISABLED PERSON SEATS on the bus!

Oh the agony as I tried to push a grocery cart while using crutches!

And HORRORS OF HORRORS! The physical therapy! Oh the awfulness of having to learn to walk all over again!

No one should ever play sports again. No sports at all. No football, no karate, no rock climbing. Why? BECAUSE YOU WILL GET HURT! And that will raise the cost of health care for us all. Nope, we should all sit on our couches and watch Fox News instead while eating candy and ice cream loaded with chocolate and calories so we can pad our bodies to protect us from injuries if we fall down.

I now propose a law outlawing sports and exercise of every kind. We wouldn't want you to get HURT.

/sarcasm

[NuttyFluffers]

55. Good! But Blame a Specific 2nd (or 3rd) Party, Too! Like a Nerf Football!

It was the condensed cruelty latent within that accursed Nerf football that brought forth the horrendous magnitude of full throttle competition in Touch Football. And such an alignment of malignant forces overwhelmed your fortitude and thrusted upon you the agony of a sports injury. It was a conspiracy of confluences beyond your ken bent on designing your future suffering. You were simply a mere pawn of the great players of fate; you are simply devoid of any responsibility leading up to the risks and it would be utterly cruel and inhumane to expect otherwise.


Look! I can write a parallel to the anti-choice, sexuality-strangulation movement! Or basically a template for any fearmongering. Insert basic element of human existence within the parentheses!
:D
The fault clearly lays upon the world which allows (physical activity). And an injust society which fosters industries in producing artifices to encourage recreational indulgence of (physical activity). We must stamp out (vigorous movement). This requires education in the only truth, that (play/exercise/etc) leads to pain, shame, and sin, unless wholly approved and sanctioned through my special group. All other views regarding (vigorous movement) must be censored. Tolerance of anything less will lead to (physical therapy) and other aspects of the deepest pits of agony. I may have (played and/or exercised) and have even endured (physical therapy) but the time is right that such things be sealed away forever, for your safety...

[Straight Shooter]

14. What will be your excuse for skirting responsibility next time, Kayla?

Excuse me, Kayla, but many others have been through grief in their life. What makes you so special that you have to turn your grief into a power trip?

And who the hell gave you the talking point of being "stripped" of your child? Which it wasn't a child, anyway, it was a fetus.

Hey, Kayla, go volunteer at a center which seeks to treat victims of child abuse. It will give you a real purpose in life, instead of being a cheap mouthpiece for the GOP.

[tnlefty]

15. I'm beyond weary of this 'don't want someone else to have the same

right that I exercised because I feel bad about it now' crap.

I'm also sick of the 'it's against my religious beliefs' statements. If it's against your religious beliefs then don't even consider having an abortion, but quit trying to place your religious beliefs upon the rest of us! Sorry to say that I'm not even nice about it anymore when I stumble into one of these discussions.

[Richard Steele]

16. She PANICKED, made a choice, and later regretted that choice.

A SANE person might conclude that making choices while
in a panic is a bad idea.

A real DUMBASS might conclude that no one else should ever
be allowed to make choices.

[ComerPerro]

17. She's a self-centered bitch

"its ok for me to do it, but not for anyone else".

[Richard Steele]

19. It always comes down to that with such people.

Self-centered is hardly even a strong enough term.

[ComerPerro]

20. yeah, I am not sure of the right word for her.

Especially someone who judges others for doing something she has done herself.

[baldguy]

18. Don't you know how abortionists operate?

They accost young expectant mothers on the street, drag them to the abortionarium and rip the baby from the womb. Their greatest joy comes if the baby cries during the procedure.

(I guess I put the :sarcasm: tag on for the humor impaired.)

[Book Lover]

21. On the one hand, I truly do feel bad for her

Clearly she did panic. Clearly she made a poor choice - look at her now, full of unresolved issues which it appears she has no interest in addressing. Now her pain is driving her to be part of the anti-choice movement (now that she made her choice, of course). Instead of healing herself, she acts to harm others.

[novalib]

22. "Blame"??!! "SHAME"??!!

The SHAME is hers??!!

The BLAME is hers??!!

What sort of talk is this??!!

What "Blame"??!!

What "Shame"??!!

I understand that the person who has an abortion is RESPONSIBLE for having a medical procedure.

But why does anyone say that a woman who has an abortion bears ANY BLAME?????!!!!! OR ANY SHAME??!!

[MrPrax]

26. Damn your quick...

Beat me...

I read those words at the end as well

The shame is hers. The blame is hers....um...um...what?

I WAS thinking that this sorta works at cross purposes since the poster seems on some level to agree with the poor creature's misery about being blamed and ashamed.

(Funny I have me lots of women who are more than happy to talk about their 'procedures' in supportive detail and going so far as to say that it was one of the best decisions they had made...postponing child-rearing until they are ready is usually the big one and a close second is, 'glad I never had that guy's baby'.

Raising the guilt banner only to decry it serves no purpose...

[bertha katzenengel]

36. Nah . . . I don't feel there is any shame or blame in having had an

abortion. My sense was that if the woman feels shame, she must accept it as her own. If she feels "stripped of her child," she must own the responsibility for that "stripping," and not use the passive voice as a way to deflect responsibility from herself. My sense is that she would place the "blame" for being "stripped of her child" at the feet of the pro-choice movement.

[novalib]

41. STILL........

I hear what you are saying.

STILL, it ALWAYS makes my skin crawl whenever I hear words like "BLAME' or "SHAME" ever attached to abortion.

No one ever talks of being "ashamed" of having an angioplasty. No one ever says that they accept the "blame" for having a pacemaker installed.

THEY ARE MEDICAL PROCEDURES -- JUST LIKE ABORTION!!!!!!!!

By even suggesting that words like "shame" or "blame" are appropriate for ANYONE to use about an abortion is just WRONG!!!

THERE IS NEVER ANY SHAME IN HAVING AN ABORTION -- despite what the right-wing, anti-choice ZEALOTS would try to make you (and all the rest of us) believe!!!!!

[musette_sf]

43. great posts, novalib

i was having a discussion on exactly this on another board (not DU). i stated that pregnancy termination is a medical procedure. i got a message from one of the board members saying "well, i now know YOUR views, but don't tell ME what to think".

i responded and said that i had not at all told her what to think. i simply described pregnancy termination as a medical procedure, and that it seemed like she did not like that description.

i'm so sick and tired of the "shame" and "blame" games about pregnancy termination. the reality is that it's a medical procedure. i'm sure in my more fertile days, i had some late and heavy TOMs that could very well have been spontaneous abortion. we all know that not every blastocyte sticks around for the whole ride. according to these whacks i suppose i should have wept into my Kotex and guilted myself crazy. oh the shame of it all!!!!!

[Nobody]

53. No one should ever menstruate again

My menstrual period stripped me of my baby. Never mind that I wasn't in a relationship and that I most likely wasn't pregnant. But just to be safe, I'm banning all menstrual periods.

I just can't be serious with ridiculous reasoning like what the original poster was showcasing.

[bertha katzenengel]

44. I agree completely. I believe the shame comes from what the

"pro-life" people do to try to stop abortion.

I used to do it. I used to shout "DON'T KILL YOUR BABY!" Now there's something to be ashamed of.

[angstlessk]

23. She feared losing her position and so had an abortion..other women

chose abortions for less selfish reasons...like survival, maybe not physical, but economic. She is a rich bitch who feared losing status and thinks it is all about HER...such a selfish bitch, who latches onto a cause casue she is REALLY selfish..and wants OTHER women in her position NOT to have a choice is the ABSOLUTE DEFINITION OF SELFISH! :grr:

I can say bitch...I am a fuking woman.

Edit: who ALSO had an abortion during a VERY terrible divorce.

[walldude]

24. So let me make sure I have this straight

Doctors who perform abortions are murderers, pro-choice women who have abortions are murderers but a pro-life woman who has an abortion is "sadly stripped of her child". That right freepers? :eyes:

[Red Right and BLUE]

28. I made the right choice for me and mine.

Sorry you didn't, Miss Brandt. Get some help, but don't tell others what's right or wrong for them. I have no regrets. I don't feel the same way about it as you.

edit: sorry, this was meant to be a reply to the OP.

[Breeze54]

32. Exactly! They twist and re-frame everything to suit thier purposes!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: on your comment! ;)

[citizen snips]

42. ding ding ding.

right on, game over freeps

[knitter4democracy]

30. I don't know what to say to that.

I mean, if she really thinks of herself as a victim rather than a full woman who made a bad decision for her life, then there's nothing I can say to help her. She needs therapy, a loving support system, and to get the hell out of politics and the right-to-life groups.

[mdmc]

31. She killed her own baby ... of course she feels regret

Now she needs to spread the word to help other women from making the same mistake. Don't take away the choice. Make the right choice.

[BlooInBloo]

33. Choice is for ME, not for THEE.

[WinkyDink]

38. An abortion is not a spur-of-the-moment act. She gathered the funds,

made the appt, got herself to it, spoke to nurses/doctors, undressed, etc. There were plenty of opportunities to change her mind.

[trixie]

39. let me translate

She was in a relationship <guy wanted no part of a family> She now regrets it <he is gone and so is the crazy idea that a child would have forced him to deal with her>.

Why is it that those who have freely chose want to stop choice from everyone else. If you don't know that abortion is a huge deal then you have more problems than you know.

[Blue_Tires]

40. sadly, this has been going on for years (link)

this has been posted here from time to time, and i think its apt here

http://mypage.direct.ca/w/writer/anti-tales.html

[Betty]

46. she feels guilty

and so to atone, she thinks if she stops others from exercising their right to choose, she will somehow mitigate her "sin".

[sandnsea]

47. What about the little blastocyst she lost in her menstrual cycle

Feeling years of angst over every time that happened Miss Brandt? No?? Well then stop concocting angst over choosing to do something that you're relieved about when it happens naturally.

[elehhhhna]

48. Oh Christ on a cracker! Do y'all really believe she HAD an abortion?

I say prove it.

[earth mom]

49. Whatever happened to PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY?

After all, the thugs spew that meme morning, noon and night. Time to take their own medicine.

[NMMNG]

51. And was her SO "sadly stripped of his semen"?

I so despise dipwads like this who make decisions they later regret, then run around trying to make it so other people can't make choices for themselves.

Face it. You regret a decision you made, but that doesn't give you the right to then go stripping others of their rights. If you had a child and regretted it would that make it OK for you to run around demanding women abort their pregnancies? :crazy:


Effing control freaks.

[Toots]

54. One time I smacked my thumb with a hammer

Them damn Liberal hippie hammers should be outlawed and then burned... It was the hammer's fault you know....just saying....

[Solly Mack]

56. oh boo fucking hoo

She wants absolution for a mistake she feels she made, then she can tell it to a priest...but I'm not her means of absolution.

She'll have to clear her conscience some other way...my womb isn't her confessional....and it's for damn sure not her duty.