Pro-Life vs. Anti-Choice

On day two of the postmortem for Mississippi’s anti-abortion “personhood amendment,” XX Factor’s Amanda Marcotte looks at an important divide among abortion opponents. On one side, there’s the “hyper-misogynist fundamentalist faction” of anti-choicers, who seek to outlaw abortion outright. On the other, there are pro-lifers, who generally oppose abortion but believe it should be available in certain scenarios. “Saying you’re pro-life is more about marking you as a member of a tribe,” writes Marcotte, “pledging fealty to your faith or to your identity as a conservative.” It falls to the second group to speak reason to the first.