From the article on Reality Check.
“Abortion is often framed as a mercy bestowed upon a woman who has committed the “crime” of having had sex. Mercy is something that someone else grants you, however, and not something you can simply decide for yourself that you deserve. That’s what people are stabbing at when they say they don’t want women to use abortion “as birth control.” The fear is that a woman might get an abortion without feeling remorseful or may, gasp, even feel like she’s entitled to it without having to apologize or grovel. Basically, people are uneasy with leaving the decision of whether or not an abortion is deserved to the woman seeking it herself. What a lot of people in the gray area between pro- and anti-choice want is for women to have to justify themselves in order to get abortions, even if it’s something as simple as making women feel ashamed of themselves for what they supposedly did wrong.
The problem with that, beyond the inherent sexism of it, is that there’s no real legal way to make women justify themselves, besides maybe making them sign a piece of paper that says, “I’m sorry I was a naughty girl who had sex. Can I please have my abortion now?” Roe v Wade sets things like time limits and Planned Parenthood v Casey says that there can be no “undue burden” to access, but the court decisions that shape abortion law don’t speak to “good” vs. “bad” reasons to have abortions, and for good reason. Abortion is medical treatment. It goes against basic medical ethics to require a patient to argue their moral worth before they are permitted access to health care they require.”
5 comments
November 4, 2013 at 6:13 am
john zande
Fine point.
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November 4, 2013 at 6:43 am
sonjaessen
Yes. Yes. Yes.
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November 4, 2013 at 7:17 am
Les Smith
Agree wholeheartedly.
If the right to security of the person means anything at all, it must surely mean at very least the right not to have one’s body occupied against one’s will.
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November 4, 2013 at 9:12 am
The Arbourist
@JZ
Everyone once and awhile you find an piece that articulates an important point so very will, one must just share it with the world.
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November 4, 2013 at 9:14 am
The Arbourist
@Les Smith
This basic idea breaks like the tides on the shore of most fetus-fetish types. The notion that the woman has any role in the pregnancy seems so very far from their argumentation.
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