What my wife thinks about abortion:

[Mr. Tweedy]

I'm just going to throw this out here and then not say anything else about it:

My wife is currently pregnant (with my baby!).  While this baby is residing in her womb for a given period of time, she recognizes that it is not a part of her body.  It has its own unique DNA, its own heartbeat, etc.  While it currently relies on her for life-support, she recognizes it as a distinct individual.

Because it is a distinct life, she believes that aborting it is not a matter of controlling her own body or her own reproducion: It is a matter or respecting another person's life.  She believes that she has no more right to destroy the body of this new baby than she has to destroy the body of any other person she might meet.

That's all I had to say.  I'm just curious what comments people may or may not have about her point of view.

(Anyone who wonders why I'm posting this instead of her: She doesn't like message boards.  She thinks they're silly.)

[SFEley]

I'm just going to throw this out here and then not say anything else about it:

Oh, for the love of...

Mr. Tweedy.  We just walked away from a large bonfire that was constantly threatening to break out of control, and for which ground had to be recleared and sparks stamped out several times.

Now you want to come back to that forest campground and drop napalm over it.

NO.

I don't know if you're being a deliberate troll, or an oblivious one, but I'm not going to let this continue.  We've got a pretty good community here.  Yes, diverse points of view are fine, and yes this is a board for miscellaneous topics, but this is not a community built for the purpose of arguing about abortion, or religion, or other topics that are obviously inflammatory and that have never, in the history of the Internet, persuaded anyone to change their point of view.  This community is about Escape Artists podcasts first, related topics (SF, horror, writing, etc.) second, and unrelated topics way off on the horizon.  It'd be all too easy to reverse those priorities by bringing everyone's energy permanently down onto topics like this -- or driving good people away with it.

We began with one rule: don't insult anyone.  You're now forcing the creation of a second rule.  I don't know what the specific wording should be yet, and I welcome discussion on it in the Metachat forum, but I do know it needs to prohibit what you just did.  (I.e., create a new topic just to lob a grenade -- sorry, "throw this out here" -- about a highly sensitive and divisive topic, then run for cover and watch people argue.)

This post is not an attempt on your part to be a friendly peer of this community.  This is provocation, it is antisocial, and it is unacceptable.  I'll figure out the policy on it later.

Meanwhile, this thread is locked.  Since there was no policy before, just to let you have your little point, I'm going to let it sit here locked for a few days, at least through the weekend.  Sometime next week I will delete it.  If anyone really wants to respond to you about what they think of what your wife thinks, they can PM you.  You can have any discussion you want to privately. 

If I've pissed you off, you can PM me.  Feel free, because you've really pissed me off.

You may think it's fun to poke this community with sticks, but I do not.  And that's the other reason I'm leaving this up for a few days before deleting it: to let everyone here know that this shit will not stand.

Are we clear? 

Flames on this, bring them over to Metachat.

[Mr. Tweedy]

I asked SFEley to unlock this thread so i could post an apology, and this is it.

It was not my intention to create discord and cause fights, but as SFEley points out, it should be obvious to anyone with half a brain that discord and fights would be the inevitable result of this topic.  For lacking half a brain, I apologize.  I will try to grow some more gray cells in the coming days.

I think I also owe a second apology because I have acted selfishly here.  I really enjoy the dialog that goes on in these forums.  I love the candid expression and the diversity of opinions.  It's a lot of what I liked about college, but without the dumb gen-ed assignments.  That said, "tossing a grenade," as SFEley puts it, is a disrespectful and exploitative way to solicit opinions.  I really do want to hear what others think, but it was wrong for me to risk inciting anger and bitterness between the members of this community to gratify that desire.

I apologize for being dumb and for being selfish.  And I thank the people here for extending tolerance and respect to me in spite of my obvious faults.

--Josh