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Pro-choicer called a 'murderer,' hits back with hard questions about what 'pro-life' really means

Is your community going to help pay for healthcare and education costs?

via National Organization of Women

A 'Keep Abortion Legal' sign in Washington, D.C.

Calling a pro-choice person a "murderer" is a sadly common inflammatory insult hurled by pro-birthers. In true medical terms, terminating an embryo is terminating a multicellular diploid eukaryotic organism, not murdering a person. Nonetheless, people still invoke images of infanticide in order to demonize people advocating for reproductive health care access. Normalizing a debate around whether abortion is murder has only further stigmatized the very real existential threats women face without birth control and safe abortion access.

A recent screenshot posted on the Murdered by Words page showed a heated exchange between a pro-choicer and the pro-birth person who called them an advocate for murder. The pro-choicer ignored the initial insult of "murderer" and continued the conversation by grilling the pro-lifer about how they intend to help build a world where people can healthily raise children.

murdered by words, abortion, pro-life debate, pro-choice debate, women's rights, murder, abortion fightAn inflammatory text about abortion rights.via Reddit

The response read:

"What happens next? Once you have succeeded in your quest to stop the termination of a pregnancy - disregarding the circumstances for why the woman or couple wants to terminate (failed birth control, rape, lack of financial stability, unsuitable environment, domestic violence, mental health issues, lack of employment, medical issues, lack of comprehensive sexual education) - what happens next?"

"Who pays for the prenatal or postnatal care? Surely not a couple working a minimum wage who can barely afford their rent. Who provides healthcare and funds medical bills for a single woman with no place to live? Or a married couple who struggle to afford the children they already have? Who assists the millions of children in foster care, still waiting to be adopted? Who helps them when they hit the street at 18 with no money or life skills?"

Will you and your ilk - the self-proclaimed 'pro-life' community help to fund comprehensive sexual education for teens? How about access to affordable birth control? Why not promote a vasectomy as a viable option for men who don't want children? How about funding scientific research so men can have more birth control options than just condoms? Is your community going to help pay for healthcare and education costs? Once you have succeeded in stopping the termination of a pregnancy, what role will you have in ensuring a quality of life for the foetus you so desperately wanted to save?"

abortion, women's rights, pro-life, pro-choice, toronto, university of toronto, canadaPro-life protestors. via University of Toronto/Flickr

The pro-life person simply responded by claiming it's the parents' responsibility, which ushered in a final call out of the hypocrisy of many factions of the pro-life movement.

abortion, women's rights, pro-life, pro-choice, abortion debate, children, babies, protestsA pro-choice protestor holding a sign.via Steve Rhodes/Flickr

The pro-choicer's rebuttal ended with a bang, calling out all the ways the pro-birth community fails to support life after conception:

"And there's the money shot. Here's a wakeup call - you don't get to come into my inbox and sh*t all over my Sunday with your over-inflated Messiah complex with your Facebook profile filled with delusions of superiority declaring yourself to be on the side of "life." when in reality your compassion stops just inside the vaginal canal."
"Don't embarrass yourself and pretend that you give a flying f*ck about what happens once a foetus is born, or about the people who aren't equipped to raise them. Don't pretend you give a sh*t about children when you aren't prepared to do a damn thing about the millions of struggling families on welfare, or the millions of children in foster care."
Don't pretend you give a sh*t about life, when you would rather just sit by and smugly proclaim women should 'close their legs' because it's less energy to do so than it is to lobby for resources that would make it easier for people to become parents. Go away."

Suffice it to say, the pro-birther had no rebuttal after that.

Since this article was published in 2019, there have been massive shifts in abortion law in the United States. Several states began passing very restrictive abortion laws to challenge Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court Decision that made abortion legal throughout the United States. In 2022, the Supreme Court, bolstered by 6 to 3 conservative super majority, overturned Roe in the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case. The decision returned legal power to the states and, as a result, abortion was quickly banned or limited in states such as Alabama and Arkansas, and rights were strengthened in others, including California and Michigan.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

This article originally appeared six years ago on SomeeCards.

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Mom shares why she's 'really proud' of her 19-year-old daughter who wouldn't take $9 an hour

via Anna Shvets/Pexels

A teen watches as an employer looks at her resume.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a massive shake-up in the American labor market and for many, the change has been positive. Many Americans quit their job this year because they feel optimistic that after enduring some of the harshest working conditions during the pandemic, they can find better work that pays more elsewhere.

This sea change in the labor market comes on the heels of the nation’s collective dedication to the idea that people should be paid a living wage and it should be somewhere around $15 an hour.

The change in attitudes toward work has many younger people feeling empowered to ask for better compensation and treatment in their young careers. This was perfectly evidenced by a mother on Reddit who praised her 19-year-old daughter for refusing to accept $9 an hour.

In the post's title, the mother wrote: "I’m really proud of my 19 year old daughter. She was offered $9/hr at a second interview today and declined telling them she couldn’t feed herself with that.”

"She told me she was polite about it, which she always is, but I was still a bit taken back initially that she would say this directly to the shop owner. It was somewhere she really wanted to work and has been going to since she was a kid," the mom continued.

The employer admitted that they weren’t paying “a living wage” and apologized for not being able to offer more. The daughter also had some leverage because she was making $10.50 an hour at another job.

The 41-year-old mother was impressed because when she was in her teens, younger workers were forced to accept any deal they were offered and had little leverage or confidence to ask for anything more than substandard.

"I'm 41 and when I was her age I would've taken any s*** pay they offered me just for the experience and so I could work at my favorite shop. And I would've been grateful for the opportunity for them to take full advantage of me," she explained. "I would've never had the confidence to stand up to an older adult in a position of power like that,” she added. “I told her I was so proud of her for knowing her worth and not accepting anything less."

Reddit user jakeyeah111 had the best response to the post. "Yup. The amount of older people who are mad that the younger generation isn't letting themselves get stepped all over anymore is... off-putting,” they wrote.

The mother’s post mirrors trends that people are seeing across income levels in America. The average reservation wage, or the minimum annual wage consumers said they needed before they would even consider accepting a job offer, has risen more than $14,000 over the past six years to $68,954.

On ZipRecruiter, the number of jobs offering $15 an hour has more than doubled over the past two years.

The changes in the labor market and public opinion are a wonderful development for the U.S. economy. Instead of cultivating a market where people are forced to accept less than they believe they're worth, employers and employees are working to create mutually beneficial relationships that uplift everyone.

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Economist says that the U.S. minimum wage should be $26 and proves it with a simple chart

via New America / Flickr

Over the past decade, activists have been fighting for the U.S. to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The $15 threshold, which is more than double the federal minimum wage of $7.25, is seen by many as a "living wage."

Some states have higher minimum wages than the $7.25 standard, with California being the top at $14. However, 21 still linger in the $7.25 zone.

Given such paltry wages, it's no wonder why the U.S. is currently having a "labor shortage." Maybe it'd be more appropriately labeled a wage shortage?

A dramatic new report from Dean Baker, the founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, shows that if the federal minimum wage had kept up with U.S. productivity, it'd be at a staggering $26 an hour.

Baker is an economist who received his B.A. from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan. His work has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post, London Financial Times.

via Center for Economic and Policy Research

The federal minimum wage was first established in 1938 and Congress repeatedly raised the amount to correspond with U.S. productivity. In 1968 it was the equivalent of $12 in today's dollars. However, since 1968, U.S. productivity has dramatically increased, but the minimum wage has remained relatively stagnant.

"Furthermore, a minimum wage that grew in step with the rapid rises in productivity in these decades did not lead to mass unemployment," Baker wrote. "The year-round average for the unemployment rate in 1968 was 3.6 percent, a lower average than for any year in the last half-century."

If Congress had kept the minimum wage to match productivity we'd live in a much different world.

"Think of what the country would look like if the lowest paying jobs, think of dishwashers or custodians, paid $26 an hour," Baker speculates. "That would mean someone who worked a 2000 hour year would have an annual income of $52,000. This income would put a single mother with two kids at well over twice the poverty level."

However, Baker argues that such a dramatic, overnight shift would result in an economic disaster because we've "restructured the economy in ways that ensure a disproportionate share of income goes to those at the top."

Baker cites several examples of how the economy has been restructured, including "government-granted patent and copyright monopolies" that have inflated the cost of drugs, medical equipment, and software which would "all be relatively cheap in a free market."

Baker says that CEOs are vastly overpaid because "the corporate boards that most immediately determine CEO pay are largely selected by the CEO and other top management." So a lot of the company's money is wasted in CEO compensation when it could be spread amongst the rest of the employees.

He also believes that the financial sector benefits people who make "little or no contribution to the productive economy." Specifically, he says that the banking industry charges people tens of billions in fees when we could just as easily have digital bank accounts with the Fed.

Baker thinks that we can get back to a country where wages match productivity and the changes we'd need to make to get there are worthwhile.

"It would be a great story if we could reestablish the link between the minimum wage and productivity and make up the ground lost over the last half-century," Baker concludes. "But we have to make many other changes in the economy to make this possible. These changes are well worth making."

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A Mississippi caterer raised the minimum wage at his company and sales are higher than ever

via Fit Chef Catering

The minimum wage has been one of the most hotly debated political issues in the country over the past decade. Those that are against raising the wage claim it will lead to unemployment and business closures.

Supporters of an increase in the minimum wage believe that it will not only benefit workers but help small businesses by increasing consumer spending, spurring productivity, and lowering workplace turnover.

Business owners tend to be against raising the minimum wage because it raises the cost of doing business. However, a small business owner and chef in central Mississippi raised the minimum wage at his company and things couldn't have gone better.

It's a great lesson on how people will provide you even more value when you show they're valuable.

Two weeks ago, Kevin Roberts, the owner of Fit Chef Catering in Vicksburg raised the entry-level wage from $9 an hour to $11 across his entire company.

While many in the U.S. are fighting to raise it to $15, Mississippi has the lowest minimum wage at $7.25 an hour, so the rise to $9 is considerable. Plus, Mississippi has the lowest cost of living in the United States. Hawaii, which has the highest, has a minimum age of $10.10.

Roberts didn't just give a lot of people a raise, but some great perks as well.

"This new payscale structure also includes a free daily meal, monthly tip outs, monthly performance bonuses and options for employer based group medical insurance," he wrote in a Facebook post that has gone viral.

All of these new incentives meant he had to raise the price of his products by 11 to 13% which adds up to about $.50-$.75 per meal.

After improving his employee's compensation, he noticed that there were eight very positive changes to his business.

  1. Employee tardiness is down
  2. Callouts have been reduced
  3. Employee morale is at an all-time high
  4. Teamwork is at an all-time high
  5. Product quality is at its absolute best
  6. Employees are stepping up in leadership
  7. We have more applications on hand than in the last three months
  8. Production is at an all-time high.

"And, since we are a business," Roberts wrote. "Last week was the HIGHEST grossing sales week we have had as a company since opening 3 years ago. And we are expected to have a growth of near 30-40% about to occur in the next month with the opening of a new location."

The whole experience has changed the way Roberts sees himself and his business.

"The best thing I ever did for my company was take a long hard look at how I was leading and began working on my leadership," he wrote. "I went from leading with an 'iron fist' to now a compassionate heart. Needless to say, the results speak for themselves!"

The Fit Chef Catering story shows that there doesn't always have to be an adversarial relationship between business and labor. It proves that sometimes raising wages can be a win-win for everyone involved.

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