Author Jodi Picoult's Pro-Life Blocking Spree Shows She's Not Tolerant

By Skyler Lee

Author Jodi Picoult is known for writing books tackling controversial topics, but she has also caused quite the controversy by blocking a large majority of pro-lifers on Twitter, including some of her own fans and many others who have never even interacted with nor know her.

Picoult, who is best-known for My Sister’s Keeper, has tackled a variety of controversial topics in her books, including the right to die, religion, and, most recently, abortion. In fact, her latest book, A Spark of Light, covers a story about a shooting at a Mississippi Abortion Clinic, a novel she claims explores both sides of the abortion debate and isn’t meant to sway people toward either view.

However, the pro-choice message behind the book is so obvious, even USA Today countered her claims.

“This is by far her most blatantly political novel, and while she tries to get inside the heads of her characters to explore both sides of the pro-choice/pro-life debate, it’s obvious where her sympathies lie. She spells them out in an afterword, in which she lays out her concerns about the threats to abortion rights while noting that she interviewed pro-life advocates as well as 151 women who have terminated pregnancies,” USA Today wrote.

Likewise, Picoult has become quite vocal about her abortion beliefs, recently telling The Irish Times under the current political environment, “Abortion will become a privilege, not a right.”

It seems Picoult believes in imaginary rights never mentioned in our beloved Constitution.

In an interview with CBS News she claimed to understand pro-lifers and respect both sides of the debate.

“I absolutely did [speak to people on both sides]. This is not an issue that we are ever going to agree on and one of the things that I learned speaking to people who think differently than me is that they come from a place of deep conviction and deep compassion as well. They believe what they believe and we have to fund a way to work together in spite of that. What I want to not tell you what I think in my book”, Picoult told CBS News.

However, her Twitter activity tells a very different story. On December 14th, Picoult engaged in a lengthy thread conversation with well-known pro-life account @DankProlifeMeme who rightfully and respectfully challenged some of her views, specifically asking why she’s against the death penalty and supports abortion, responding to a tweet regarding Picoult speaking at a rally against the death penalty. Picoult then even denied the actual humanity of the preborn, despite scientific support.

See the thread below:

Although DankProlifeMeme’s tweets were respectful, apparently they enraged Picoult so much, she not only blocked him, but the majority of his followers as well.

Accounts she blocked included her own fans who had nothing to do with the debate that simply happen to be pro-life and follow the DankProlifeMeme account as can be seen in various tweets below:

Once this came to the attention of Twitter users who started calling Picoult out, she responded simply with this.

However, her claims aren’t true, as the majority of people she blocked not only didn’t tweet her hateful messages, but they did not even know who Jodi Picoult is, nor had they ever interacted with her on Twitter, as can be seen in the following Tweets:

It’s sad and disappointing to say the least that someone who claims to understand the other side of debates would block users for their beliefs. It appears she’s not as tolerant and understanding as she claimed in her CBS News interview, but instead views pro-life advocates as lacking compassion and worthy of being blocked and ignored.

That certainly isn’t how you open conversations and dialogue, Picoult.