In a recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, rapper Nicki Minaj admitted to having an abortion. She admitted that "It was the hardest thing I had ever gone through." However, in the interview she maintained a pro-choice stance, stating that "I wasn't ready. I didn't have anything to offer a child."
While anti-abortion blogger Jill Stanekwas happy to hear the first part, she and her commenters took issue with the second. One commenter, identified as "Kel" stated:
I am a little puzzled by her statement that she is pro-choice because otherwise, it would be contradictory.
Nicki, it is OKAY for you to say, “I had an abortion and it was awful, and if you don’t want to be haunted by it like I was, then CHOOSE LIFE for your baby.”
My Gut Reaction, Part One: Great. Thanks to anti-aborts, I now have to defend the woman who gave us the song "
Stupid Hoe."
My Gut Reaction, Part Two: Why do anti-aborts all seem to have the moral reasoning of a ten year old?
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Seriously, it seems like the anti-abortion movement largely attracts people with very little ability to reason out complex moral issues. Instead, they resort to either appeals to authority, such as Catholic dogma, or the most simplistic moral reasoning imaginable. Take Kel, quoted above. Because Minaj expressed mixed feelings about her abortion, Kel assumes that is proof of something wrong. She fails to consider the other part of Minaj's statement, in which she notes that she wouldn't have been able to provide for the child.
These people are only able to focus on one thing, the fetus. They are unable or unwilling to consider other factors, such as whether giving birth will doom the mother and child to a life of poverty, or if the child will suffer from a painful disease they could never recover from. They reduce a complex moral decision to a matter of simple fiat.
One has to give Minaj credit. She had to know going public with something like this would bring opprobrium on her, especially from the religious right. She probably had a few publicists or producers telling her to keep mum. More importantly, she has expressed the complex feelings that come from something like abortion while showing this shouldn't overrule the right to choose.