Abortion at the Crossroads by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2021-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

6

Direct Action in Fiction, Fact, and Investigative Action

As politicians hogtied pro-life activists, some fiction writers went to town depicting abortion opponents as “the crazy ones.” In 1994, at the nadir of the pro-life movement, Stephen King came out with Insomnia, which focuses on murderous pro-lifers. Viking printed 1.5 million copies—Insomnia was the #1 bestseller in the US for three weeks.

Three King pro-life characters seemed believable in the 1990s. First, wife-beater Ed, whose laughter is “a jagged little sound that made Ralph [the novel’s hero] think of rats dancing on broken glass.” Ed talks like this: “They are killing the babies wholesale…and carrying them out of town in covered trucks.Flatbeds for the most part. Ask yourself this, Ralph: how many times a week do you see one of those big flatbeds tooling down the road? A flatbed with a tarp stretched across the back? Ever ask yourself what those trucks were carrying? Ever wonder what was under most of those tarps?…. I’ve seen the corpses of infants on roofs…under hedges.”

The second pro-life character, Daniel Dalton, speaks on a television news show with “dour, jut-jawed determination…. His eyes glowed in his long, lean face…all over eastern Maine, people were watching this and deciding that the man in the red suspenders was crazy…. Dalton, now nervously snapping his suspenders like big red rubber bands, looked a few sandwiches shy of a picnic.”

The third major pro-life character, Charlie Pickering, has eyes that “floated like strange fish. The expression in them was disconnected and oddly frightened, Ralph thought. The eyes of a man who would see signs in the sky and perhaps hear voices whispering from deep in the closet late at night.” Pickering pricks Ralph with a knife “because you’re a…f-ing baby-killer! Stealing the fetal unborn! Selling them to the highest bidder.” He keeps pricking and says, “‘OhboyohboyohBOY!’…. The man’s mouth pulled up in a jerky, humorless smile. Flecks of spittle clung to the corners of his lips…. Another gust of that sickening breath washed over Ralph’s face.”

Ralph manages to spray pepper-gas in the face of Pickering, who screams, “I can’t see and my skin is melting! I can feel it melting!” Pickering is not only the wicked witch of the west, but a killer who sets fire to an abortion center and murders its workers, plus state troopers who try to stop him: “Pickering cried out the window in his screaming, laughing voice. ‘Barbecue! Barbecue! Holy cookout! Burn the bitches! God’s fire! God’s holy fire!…. Barbecue all Godless women!…. Lesbian cookout!’”

Stephen King also portrayed a pro-life demonstration: “The Friends of Life people rushed out and blocked the road, holding their own signs (MURDER IS MURDER…STOP THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS) in front of them like shields…. Heckling and angry words escalated into kicks and punches. It had begun with one of The Friends of Life recognizing her own daughter among the pro-choice people. The older woman had dropped her sign and charged the younger. The daughter’s boyfriend had caught the older woman and tried to restrain her….

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