an investigation into weird anti-abortion merch on Etsy

hiding violence behind aesthetics

Sep 18, 2023

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In today’s post we’re looking at a niche and ugly corner of Etsy: anti-abortion apparel. I’m pretty sure I first saw this stuff by accident, in a similar items suggestion. Note: the items were not, in fact, similar.

If you type in “pro-life” in Etsy’s search bar, you get 13,029 results (luckily, you get more than that for both pro-choice and pro-abortion <3). Now for some examples. Obviously I don’t want to send any web traffic their way, so we’re working with unlinked screenshots here. Ahem: your blood pressure might rise here, mine did.

As you can see, we’ve got an assortment of pastel colors/basic-girl-beige, appealing fonts, and soft looking hoodies. Either surrounded by styling suggestions (apparently Converse sneakers pair well with bigotry), or modeled by women with perfectly waved & balayaged hair (these are likely auto-generated from printing services).

Top phrases include:

“Pro Life Is Real Feminism” (grammatically iffy)
“Save the Babies” (which babies exactly?)
“63,000,000” (no, this is not the number of times All Too Well - 10 Minute Version has been streamed)
“Choose Life” (obviously not your own)
“The baby’s body is not your body” (as a currently very pregnant person, I am absolutely certain that I have built every component myself)
A bunch of stuff celebrating the fall of Roe (spoiler: we will always, always have abortions, abortion pills are in our communities, and the primary risk for self-managed abortions is a legal one not a medical one!)

I’ve identified a couple of categories of sellers for these products.

The loud and prouds: Those who primarily sell things that are similarly hateful. They apparently have no shame.
The snakes: Those who sell products across a wide variety of topics (ex: teachers, breast cancer awareness, Valentine’s Day, camping, moms, dog moms, weddings, etc. They present their hatred as simply part of their business plan. But these sellers likely know that their anti-abortion shit might dissuade some potential buyers from purchasing their other, more innocuous products. So, they often hide their anti-abortion garbage in categories like “For Christians”. As we know from organizations like Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Catholics for Choice, Just Texas, and other pro-abortion religious leaders, being anti-abortion is not inherently a Christian value.

So, what are they trying to do here?* A combination of softening the messaging to make it seem more palatable (at a glance) and framing anti-abortion rhetoric as cutesy feminine. Oh and also - trying to set up a sharp dichotomy between people who have abortions and people who are parents. As if anti-abortion zealots have somehow cornered the market on parenting (truly a terrifying thought!). As we know, the majority of people who have abortions are already parents, and this monopoly on parenting is certainly not rooted in reality.

*Note: definitely not in some kind of mastermind way - there’s not enough critical thinking going on for that - just the garden variety hateful kind of way.

And what happens when these violent and dehumanizing messages are presented in pretty/floral/aesthetic packages? By putting rounded edges on something undeniably violent, they’re positioning reproductive oppression as something innocuous, morally good, or even cute (babies!). In short: they’re gaslighting us. In reality, these clothing items serve to intimidate people who have abortions, in public. To make them feel ashamed, dirty, and small. They also serve the self-righteous purpose of designating themselves as one of the “good” women - those that aid and abet patriarchal structures. Those that would never have abortions. Those that benefit from keeping others down. It’s all inextricably tied up in toxic and harmful expressions of white womanhood.

One seller’s product description reads, “Let this cozy, vintage-style shirt be a conversation starter about how He has called us to live”. A conversation starter. To state the obvious: the right of people who have abortions to make their own decisions is not up for discussion. The morality of someone’s reproductive choices is not up for discussion. There’s nothing cozy about trying to control whether other people have children or not.

When I see this type of clothing out in the wild, I have the exact same reaction I do when I see those trucks that have the balls hanging off the back (and both of these situations happen - I live in Texas). A mix of disgust, incredulity, and rage. And it’s worth noting that this holier than thou garbage connects to a web of other strange Etsy listings for things like: boy motherhood, “raising gentlemen”, anti-vax shit, pro-gun shit. But that’s for another day - there’s only so much grossness you can handle at once.

I’ll leave you with this: Imagine spending $38 on this trash! Plus shipping! Imagine going out in public with a beautifully lettered, decorated-with-florals sign saying, “I have deeply internalized self-hatred and shame, enjoy making other people feel bad about themselves for no reason, think abortion should only be available in secret to me and for my reasons, and I’m proud of it.” Imagine thinking you should get to make decisions about someone else’s body from the comfort of your cozy anti-abortion hoodie. Couldn’t be me! And I know it also couldn’t be you.

Now, to get the taste of this out of your mouth, here’s some gorg pro-abortion merch I love (& please add your faves in the comments!):