Abortion = Population Control?

by Tabitha Hale | July 9, 2009 3:16 pm

Crossposted at Pink Elephant Pundit

Abortion talk with Justice Ginsburg. This proved to be a sufficiently chilling conversation. From the NY Times[1]:

Q: The case ties together themes of women’s equality and reproductive freedom. The court split those themes apart in Roe v. Wade. Do you see, as part of a future feminist legal wish list, repositioning Roe so that the right to abortion is rooted in the constitutional promise of sex equality?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: Oh, yes. I think it will be.

First of all, huh? Being equipped to have children makes us less equal? Don’t think so. This drives me absolutely batty. The fact that we are designed to have children is not a handicap. It is not a burden. The idea that women need to have on demand access to abortions is part of a Constitutional promise is absurd. By that logic, the government should find ways to enable men to bear children. After all, are we living in a truly equal society if men cannot carry and birth children? Shouldn’t that fall under the “Constitutional promise of equality”?

The self-loathing in this thought process is evident. This is about finding ways to fight the very essence of who you are. As a woman, you are created with the anatomy that makes it possible for you to bear children. By reviling that possibility and claiming that they are not being treated as an equal citizen unless they have the right to rid yourself of it, they are actually claiming that women need assistance to be equal. Girls: You were made a certain way. I’m sorry you hate it.

Q: If you were a lawyer again, what would you want to accomplish as a future feminist legal agenda?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that had changed their abortion laws before Roe [to make abortion legal] are not going to change back. So we have a policy that affects only poor women, and it can never be otherwise, and I don’t know why this hasn’t been said more often.

Q: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn’t really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong.

Seriously? Abortion was legalized as a form of population control, to get rid of unwanted populations? I suppose that’s similar to Nancy Pelosi’s view on abortion. Fund Planned Parenthood! Less people will help the economy! Remember that? I’ll refresh you[2]:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?

PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children’s health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those – one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?

PELOSI: No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.

Right. So we should work really hard to get the government involved in making sure that everyone has the ability to terminate any life they find inconvenient. Because THAT is the key to our economic recovery.

The tone of these women regarding this topic is, well, creepy. We are not less equal because we can bear children. Abortion is NOT a form of birth control, and it should NOT be used to control population or weed out undesirables, as Ginsburg alluded to.

Endnotes:
  1. From the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12ginsburg-t.html?pagewanted=4&_r=1
  2. I’ll refresh you: http://pinkelephantpundit.com/2009/01/26/birth-control-the-best-economic-stimulus/

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/top-news/abortion-population-control/