Tuesday, June 28, 2022

Another abortion consideration

Here's a perspective I had never considered before.

 . . . Heck, as soon as it was announced that Roe was overturned there was a very large segment of men desperately crying out with ecstatic joy over the idea that "whores" would finally have to face the consequences for "spreading their legs."

This is the spirit behind the "rape and incest exceptions" that exist in some of the states that are banning abortion. Sure, part of it is that those passing the laws don't want to look like total monsters who would force an 11-year-old to have her father's baby, but a much bigger part of it is that in these cases, the victim did not have sex on purpose and therefore is not, according to the logic of misogyny, in need of the corrective punishment of childbirth.

This is why there is a part of me that internally cringes every time we lower the bar by talking about how an abortion ban doesn't have a rape and incest exception — even though sometimes I understand it is necessary to demonstrate just how Draconian and cruel these policies are. Because it absolutely does reinforce the idea that forced birth is the punishment for those who can get pregnant having sex. The only reason anyone should ever need to have an abortion is that they want one. Period, end of story.

I totally agree with that and I appreciate the idea, which was new to me. The article goes on to point out that even rape and incest exceptions are meaningless if there are no abortion providers in your state.

So let's drop that "low bar only sufficient to not be a monster" framing and talk about abortion as a critical, personal, private health choice for all people who want it. Because that's exactly what it is.

2 comments:

SJHoneywell said...

Based in part on this but also on other rulings, I'd like to paraphrase something I saw recently--I've had crunchwraps more supreme than this court.

Ipecac said...

LOL. The radicals finally have an unassailable voting bloc and have decided to just go all out on their warped agenda.