Yesterday, I wrote a quick blog post expressing skepticism that the Web site Birth or Not could be anything but an anti-choice hoax—predicting specifically that the “pro-choice” couple putting the wife’s pregnancy up to an online vote are going to stage a conversion to the anti-abortion side, and become one of those legends anti-choicers circulate amongst themselves. Sadly, I didn’t have much time to investigate further, due to travel, but luckily the blogger Jeff Fecke did . The evidence now makes it almost certain that the man running this site is an anti-choice fanatic misrepresenting his and his wife’s views in order to stage a conversion.
Jeff discovered that the Web site owner, Pierre “Pete” Arnold, has worked for a right-wing radio talk show and blogged for an anti-choice right-wing Web site. He’s also run other poorly done parody sites. He’s also quite likely to be a man who trolls progressive wikis, vandalizing entries on reproductive rights.
But the most telling detail of all is the way the Web site presents pro-choicers, as people who somehow love abortion so much they would deliberately get pregnant just to have one. Even if you think that a fetus has no moral value at all, it’s completely silly to think that women enjoy abortions. That’s like suggesting someone eats a lot of candy not because they like the candy, but because they really want that root canal.
Screenshot from the “Birth or Not” website logo.
