An online abortion poll — for real

I'm about as pro-choice as you can get; I'm even willing to say that I'm pro-abortion, and would like to encourage more people to abort. But I'm also rather shocked by my fellow Minnesotans, Pete and Alisha Arnold, who have decided to allow people to vote on whether they should get an abortion. Way to trivialize a significant life decision, Pete and Alisha!

They have an online poll, and you can go vote right now.

Should We Give Birth or Have an Abortion?

Give Birth 77.3% (118,301 votes)

Have an Abortion 22.7% (34,741 votes)

Clearly, looking at those numbers, the 'bots have been at work, trivializing the poll even more. I don't care how you vote; what's at stake is a mere embryo, so it's no big loss if it's flushed and incinerated, and I don't have any illusions about whether this is deciding the fate of a human life — it's not. There's no person in Alisha's belly yet.

I have deep reservations about voting on this at all, because it is not and should not be my decision. But I had to vote to abort, not because of any consideration about the embryo, but because I'm looking at Pete and Alisha, the full-grown, conscious, decision-making human beings who are considering whether to take on the responsibilities of a child. And no, they are not. I'd say the same thing to someone who decided whether to have a baby or not by a flip of the coin. If that's how you make decisions about whether to commit a significant part of your life to a lot of hard work and the emotional roller coaster of child-rearing, then NO, you do not want to do it.

They're already lousy parents, and they haven't even created a child yet.


As several have already pointed out, this poll is not "for real". It's the work of a couple of libertarian anti-choice frauds. So go ahead, vote however you want, it doesn't matter and the perpetrators are a pair of morons.

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