Peter Wynn
4 min readMay 23, 2022

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Firstly, conflating inter-racial marriage with abortion makes as little sense as an Australian extremist by the name of Cory Bernardi, who made the preposterous claim that allowing two people of the same sex to marry would lead to bestiality. An easy way to dismiss that claim is, say, in the 1860s, in Australia, an Irishwoman who could not read or write married a Chinese man, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the Chinese man signed the marriage certificate in Chinese characters, and the Irishwoman's signature was a cross. You could NOT, however, turn up at the registry office with your cat or dog in a pet carrier and have the official take a paw print as a signature!

I agree with you that extremism is based on exaggeration, not to mention cherry-picking, but to dissect some of your arguments, not all things you consider extremist are.

I agree with you that it is a slur to suggest that Christians want women to die, and yes, the Catholic Church is anti-abortion but provides health care, HOWEVER, there are more extreme elements of the pro-life element. You cannot dismiss outright the claim that abortion is healthcare, especially if proceeding with a pregnancy could risk a woman's health. The lawmakers in Ohio with their preposterous law requiring a doctor to re-implant an ectopic pregnancy is a classic example of extremism and for two reasons. One, an ectopic pregnancy forms in the fallopian tubes and sometimes, a woman with one has her life at risk! And two, if the embryo is dead it cannot be revived. And let's not forget that leaving a dead embryo in a woman can increase the risk of uterine cancer.

In Australia, there are other extremists, besides Bernardi, one being Eric Abetz, who drew the unfounded claim that a woman who has an abortion has an increased risk of breast cancer!

One area where I feel particularly strongly about the right of a woman to choose is if she is pregnant due to rape or incest. I vehemently reject the nonsense from Idiot Robertson or Idiot Perry that a woman who falls pregnant due to a rape is carrying "a gift from God" or that pregnancy from rape is, "God's way of comforting rape victims." Referring to a child as "a gift from God" is preposterously misleading, and here's why. A child who is wanted or yearned for can be a gift from God, however, a child who is not sought after or conceived through such circumstances, is not a divine gift. The pro-lifers frequently say, "Oh, it's not the child's fault," and while that is true, there are two things to be remembered. One, the woman will see a semblance of the rapist in the child, and two, the "Oh, but there's always adoption," argument is myopic. Why? Let's say a woman is raped and she's forced to have the child and gives it up for adoption, the child may, once it reaches adulthood, want to find their natural parent, as many do, and okay, that door may be shut, BUT, if the woman receives a letter saying, "The child you gave birth to at such and such a time seeks contact," that may reawaken old trauma.

To say that a woman will not be enslaved may be true, BUT, there again, supposing a woman is raped and she doesn't want to keep the child, but the rapist wants access. Well, let's not forget this before we go too far. SOMETIMES, even if a woman goes to the police, and it's investigated, they might come back and say, "I'm sorry, but there's just not enough evidence to charge him," so the rapist is free. Unless the woman and the man are in a relationship, a man should not have the right to prevent a woman from giving a child up for adoption.

The idea, however, that there are Neo-Nazis who want to put women in chains cannot be dismissed as easily as you believe. YES, there may not be a lot of women who are kept in chains by neo-Nazi husbands, but there are plenty of men who would LIKE TO be able to have women in chains. Just the same, there are neo-Nazi groups that exist where they believe that white people shouldn't marry non-white people, BUT, they haven't got popular support, they're not a major party in Congress and they don't set the policy agenda.

But let's not forget something else, just because a person has a marriage partner who is not of the same ethnicity as themselves doesn't mean to say they're not racist. There have been men who've looked overseas and married women from The Philippines, Thailand and even South American countries. Okay, yes, to be fair and accurate, there have been plenty of cases where Fred goes over to Japan or South Korea to teach English and comes home with a Japanese or South Korean bride, the same as servicemen do, BUT, my father worked with a man who divorced his European wife and married a Filipina, NOT because he went and worked in The Philippines for a few years and fell in love, but because he was a sex addict and he believed that a Filipina would give him all the sex that he wanted. She did, until she became an Australian resident, and she left him, and then, he went back to The Philippines and got another one.

Extremism on either side of an argument is dangerous, BUT, I believe that men should not be making decisions on women's health, and, women's reproductive rights are women's reproductive rights, AND, most importantly, I believe, if a woman wants to have an abortion and it doesn't concern you, keep your nose out of it!

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Peter Wynn
Peter Wynn

Written by Peter Wynn

Diagnosed with autism at 35. Explained a lifetime of difference.

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