Michelle Goldberg,
Opinion Columnist
Sure. I’ve often said that the question for me in abortion is not whether a fetus is a person, it’s whether a woman is a person and a woman’s desire for equality. Although the fact that the state doesn’t support dependency is one reason women have abortions, it is not the only reason.
I agree with Leah about the right of a woman to have an abortion if she cannot afford it. Even though today’s decision is not in support of women who can’t afford to have pregnancies they don’t want or are unable to afford, it does not change the fact that they will be forced to do so.
But there is just something so deeply invasive, degrading and dehumanizing about being forced to be pregnant against your will, about being forced to give birth, which is an experience of pain unlike any that most people will ever experience in their lives – it’s a degree of pain that would be considered torture in any other circumstance – that the state can force you to do that, that it can force you to give up your body in a way that it would never force you to give up your house, in a way that it would never force you to give up an organ.
The state can’t force you to donate kidneys to save a life. It can’t compel you to donate your blood, but it can compel you – it can take from you your bodily autonomy. It is an invasion, and there is no way to stop it. I support all of the policies that Leah supports, but none of them will change the fact forced pregnancy and forced childbirth place women in a second class citizenship.
The second concern is that the abortion ban regime is too intrusive and totalitarian. It will require massive surveillance of women and their choices.
In countries that ban abortion – and I’ve been to many of them – you constantly see miscarriages investigated and in some cases, criminalized, because the line between a miscarriage and an abortion is not clear. This is dangerous not only for women who will affirmatively end unwanted pregnancies, but also for others. It is dangerous for any woman who might become pregnant. I’m over it, but I still grieve the world that I’m leaving my daughter.
Source: NY Times