There’s a new weblog dedicated to promoting progressive woman bloggers, What She Said.

She has links to a variety of websites that I already read, and is right now posting “interviews” with different bloggers.

I did, however, read one thing that irritated me, and that was in her criteria for inclusion:
…they have a feminist slant- pro-choice, size acceptance, pay equity, etc.

I find abortion as a litmus test for political affiliation incredibly irritating. The general attitude seems to be that if you do not support abortion rights, you’re not a true liberal. Well, sorry, but I’m pretty damned liberal, and I’m pro-choice.

What frustrates me further is that I find some who hold the pro-choice position to be hypocritical. Let me clarify: I’m not a vegetarian or a vegan, but I don’t eat mammals and eat minimal poultry. I firmly believe that animals should be treated humanely (Can you treat an animal humanely? Humanely: 1 : marked by compassion, sympathy, or consideration for humans or animals 2 : characterized by or tending to broad humanistic culture. The answer is yes.), and because much of the food industry fails in this regard, I refuse to support an industry I find reprehensible. I find it hard to accept that a strict vegan could be pro-choice: if eating chicken eggs is morally unacceptable, then why is aborting a fetus acceptable?

I also have problems with the “liberal” stance that finds abortion acceptable but condemns the death penalty as morally reprehensible/unacceptable. Setting aside technical problems with the death penalty, why is it unacceptable to kill someone who has killed others, sometimes horribly, yet acceptable to end the life of a fetus?

As far as I am concerned, life should be treated with respect, be that life a condemned criminal, fetus, or cow. I don’t believe that we have the right to arbitrarily decide who lives or dies, and if we must take life, be it in war or for dinner, there should be rules and guidelines in place that are followed if the situation arises.

Does that mean I’m not a liberal? I’m pretty certain it doesn’t make me a conservative.