The Texas Abortion Law Is Terrible, But Is Everyone Who Supports It Terrible?

Tripwire Interactive president John Gibson is facing enormous backlash after publicly expressing support for the new Texas anti-abortion law.

Update: Tripwire’s CEO has stepped down. Read my thoughts on his departure here.

I think most people agree: In an ideal world, there would be no abortion because there would be no unwanted pregnancies to begin with. People would make smart choices about contraception, rape and incest would be wiped from the face of the earth, and procreation would take place purposefully.

Better yet, in this ideal world we would take care of every child because we would live in a compassionate society where poverty and need was little more than a memory of some darker, more brutal era.

But we do not live in this Utopia and many of the same politicians who support bills like the one recently passed in Texas, banning abortion once there is a heartbeat in the fetus (which is problematic for myriad reasons) are the same politicians who fight tooth and nail against social programs to help the poor, who oppose any move toward “socialized” medicine and who think health insurance shouldn’t cover birth control.

It is difficult to take these people very seriously when they call themselves “pro-life” and yet all too often support the death penalty, support foreign wars and oppose so many life-saving domestic policies like universal healthcare. There are, of course, many exceptions to this. There are, indeed, many people who are anti-war, anti-death penalty and anti-abortion and whose views are coherent across these issues. (Indeed, there are Catholic socialists who oppose abortion and are just as likely to be found at an anti-war rally; belief systems are not so easily pinned down).

Abortion Laws Are Wildly Different Across The Globe

I have conflicted views on abortion. From a scientific point of view, there is no doubt that a fetus is at least the potential for life. In some Muslim schools of thought, abortion is permitted until the “spirit is blown” into the fetus at around 4 months. This is a similar timeframe to when most miscarriages will occur. Abortion laws across the Muslim world vary a great deal. Indeed, this is true across much of the Western and East Asian world as well.

In countries with liberal (aka some form of on-demand) abortion laws, most of have gestational limits. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, “The most common gestational limit for countries in this category is 12 weeks.” The United States is one of just seven countries in the world that allows abortion past 20 weeks:

•  Canada (no restriction in law)

•  China (no restriction in law)

•  Netherlands (24 weeks)

•  North Korea (no restriction in law)

•  Singapore (24 weeks)

•  United States (viability)

•  Vietnam (no restriction in law)

The point of all of this is simply to show that abortion laws vary a great deal even within advanced countries where abortion is widely available. Context matters. The US is on one end of an extreme. Countries like Iraq and Egypt are on the other extreme, prohibiting abortion for any reason. The vast majority of South American and African nations limit abortion either to health reasons or only when it’s a matter of saving the mother’s life.

The Texas abortion law restricts access to abortion to just 6 weeks, making it much more extreme than the average modern first-world nation’s gestational limit (of 12 weeks). Many women may not even know they’re pregnant during this time, which is probably the point of the misguided law.

This is an archaic standard even compared to much of the Muslim world. In Turkey, abortion is legal for the first 10 weeks of pregnancy but can be extended beyond that if the mother’s life is threatened. There are other restrictions (minors need parental consent, married women need their husband’s consent) but this is a law that was passed in 1983 and is, in some ways at least, less oppressive than the new Texas law.

So you have to look at this Texas bill with skepticism. It is not realistic or practical even if you believe that Roe v. Wade resulted in abortion laws that are too lax. Worse, it includes a bizarre “bounty” system that can award citizens $10,000 for spying and then reporting on their neighbors, a deeply uncivilized and illiberal incentive. You don’t have to be a political or sociological genius to see how badly that could go, and even some staunch anti-abortion types disapprove of its inclusion.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board has called it a “blunder” and Republican governor Larry Hogan (MD) says the bill “seems to be a little bit extreme” despite his own personal opposition to abortion. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) worries about “everyone being able to tattle” on one another—a reasonable concern.

Tripwire Interactive President John Gibson Comes Under Fire

So we come to the matter of John Gibson, the president of Tripwire Interactive, the company behind the game Killing Floor 2 (pictured above) as well as Rising Storm and Red Orchestra. Here is what Gibson tweeted:

John Gibson @RammJaeger

Proud of #USSupremeCourt affirming the Texas law banning abortion for babies with a heartbeat. As an entertainer I don’t get political often. Yet with so many vocal peers on the other side of this issue, I felt it was important to go on the record as a pro-life game developer.

The backlash to this has been enormous (and of course, the backlash to the backlash has as well, as is always the case in ye olde culture wars). Tripwire has lost contracts and video game journalists, smelling blood in the water, and have come circling, with some going so far as to actively try to create a story in order to take down Gibson for his beliefs:

This is all very strange to me for a number of reasons.

First, Gibson is not a politician setting these policies or a judge or anyone else with any power (beyond his vote, which is his right) to make laws. That he supports laws his democratically elected leaders have put in place is his business and his right even if we disagree with him.

Second, it’s very clear simply looking at the various and sundry abortion laws around the globe that the matter is far from decided in civilized society. People disagree all across the globe on when is the best gestational limit and why. People disagree on when “life” begins or what that means. People disagree. This is normal. Across religions, cultures, geographies people have differing beliefs and opinions and different ways of sorting those out (here we use votes and courts).

Erik Kain @erikkain

I'm pro-choice but I'm not sure it's healthy to tar-and-feather our political opponents for having different views and beliefs. Many who oppose abortion do out of deeply held religious conviction. Not really my place to judge, even if we disagree. I have no enemies.

Jason Schreier @jasonschreier

The president of Tripwire Interactive, publisher of this year’s popular game Chivalry 2, speaks out in favor of a recent Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks and offers a $10,000 bounty to any citizen who sues someone performing abortions or assisting with the process https://t.co/DaJtcTlwBn

Attempting to destroy someone or dig up dirt on someone for having a different political belief that almost certainly stems from religious convictions is not normal or healthy. It’s one thing to put your efforts into electing politicians who will not enact these kinds of policies (and beating politicians who will) and another altogether when you go after private citizens, even those who run video game companies, simply because they have different politics.

Abortion, I think we can all admit, is a very divisive and very complicated issue. It’s very normal for people to be divided on the subject. It’s not like Gibson posted swastikas and some pro-Hitler tweets. Abortion is not so black and white. People who claim that you must “hate women” if you are against abortion forget that women make up a very large segment of the pro-life/anti-abortion crowd.

Here’s a pair of charts from Gallup that show women’s and men’s views on legal abortion from 1975 to 2021:

As you can see, there are differences. A higher percentage of women think abortion should be legal under any circumstances whereas a higher percentage of men believe it should be legal under only certain circumstances. But those who believe it should be illegal entirely are dead even at 19% (notably much lower than the first two groups).

So the new Texas law is almost certainly too restrictive, probably unconstitutional (but hey, we have six conservative Supreme Court justices now so anything is possible) and includes a ridiculous and probably dangerous “bounty” system that turns people against their neighbors. It’s bad and will face backlash and condemnation and rightfully so.

But that still doesn’t justify attacking private citizens for supporting something we may disagree with that’s clearly not a decided issue anywhere. It reminds me of the backlash against Five Nights At Freddy’s creator Scott Cawthon whose only sin was voting Republican and donating money to the politicians he supported, including Donald Trump.

And like, okay, I get that Trump was terrible but so are most politicians, including Democrats. Biden supported all sorts of racist and terrible policies over the course of his career—it’s frankly a miracle that he had the political courage to get us out of Afghanistan. Barack Obama opposed gay marriage when he took office and continued dropping bombs all over the Middle East despite promises of “hope and change.” He laughed off marijuana legalization and he didn’t arrest the bankers responsible for the 2008 financial crash. Hillary Clinton is a corporatist hack whose politics, like her husbands, are firmly “New Democrat” which is just Republican with a fresh coat of paint.

I generally do find Republicans to be worse (in many ways), but “the lesser of two evils” is damning Democrats with faint praise.

Argue why this bill is wrong, why it will backfire, why a bunch of unwanted babies that nobody is interested in taking care of will be a terrible tragedy in its own right, why this puts the lives of women at risk etc. etc. etc. But you can do this without trying to destroy someone with different beliefs than your own. This tendency to treat everyone we disagree with like an enemy who must be smashed to rubble is not healthy or wise or sustainable.

We have to be able to debate ideas and try to find solutions together because we are stuck with one another. That’s the sad fact of life. In a civilized, democratic society we are stuck with one another and stuck with each other’s good and bad ideas, good and bad beliefs, and it’s messy and awful sometimes because sometimes we don’t get our way and sometimes injustices occur. But we need to resist the temptation to make one another enemies when we are not enemies.

As Father John Misty says, “I hate to say it, but each other’s all we got.”

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