Abortion Crackers

Many of you have already heard this story (in fact, probably all of you at this point), but I figured I better get it written down for posterity anyway.

I used to own a small, specialty foods store.  One day, a priest walked into my store with a woman (no, this is not the start of a joke).  Despite my devout atheism, I was surprised to find that I really liked this preist.  He seemed like a cool guy.  Plus, he purchased pretty much everything I recommended to him.  I'm not sure what this lady's relationship to him was, but she purchased a few things as well, then they both left.

The very next day, this lady walked timidly into my store carrying her bag of groceries.  After a few minutes of awkwardly standing at the front of the store she approached me and asked if I was the owner.  I told her I was, and after a few more minutes of hemming and hawing she asked me if I was pro-choice.  I told her that I was and she immediately put her bag down on the counter and said, "I'm sorry, I have to return these."  I was a little bit in shock, but I said, "ok" and began to process the return.  She told me she had already eaten some of the food, but the crackers were unopened so I gave her a refund on those.  I figured, she could accuse me of being pro-choice, but she couldn't accuse me of being rude or unfair.  I was as pleasant as I could possibly be about the whole thing, and as she was leaving she said, "I'm sorry, I just see it as the killing of little babies," and I replied, "Well, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one," and she left.

Thereafter, the staff and I lovingly referred to that brand of crackers as the "abortion crackers."  Needless to say, I never saw that priest (or any other priest) ever again.  I guess word got around town that I was a "killer of little babies."

I guess what bothered me the most about the whole thing is that she didn't ask me if I was killing babies in the back room, or if I was giving store funds to Planned Parenthood or anything, she simply asked me if I was pro-choice.  Meaning, simply the fact that I believe that people are allowed to make up their own minds on the issue is enough to boycott my store.  Unbelievable.