The Slow (But Accelerating) Erosion of Reproductive Rights

[jamesq]

So you want to ban abortion outright, but that pesky Roe v. Wade thing keeps coming up? What do you do? Well, you could simply make it more and more difficult to get an abortion. After all, you're not actually banning it, you're simply putting up every conceivable (heh) roadblock to it. If the monetary requirements (you don't think the mandatory ultrasound is going to be paid for by taxpayers do you?) don't clobber you, then the barrage of presentations "to keep you informed" might catch you in a moment of weakness. Finally, if navigating all the roadblocks take too long you'll hit your 22 (varies by state) week time limit.

And let's not forget the lengthy, allegedly anonymous, forms you have to fill out. I say "allegedly" because, despite not having your name, they're sufficiently detailed to allow a good data-miner to figure out who you are. How many 6'4", 42-year old, males with red hair own a house in my postal code? I haven't named names, but I bet you could attach a name to that information without much effort. Same for women filling out this information. Then it gets put up on a publicly accessible database, ostensibly for research purposes. The next day a brigade of anti-abortionists just happen to show up on your doorstep.

I'd compare it to a sibling putting his finger as close to your face as they can while chanting "I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you." Except that's funny and this situation isn't.

If these are successful, I predict that even more roadblocks will be put up. Multiple presentations, multiple invasive medical procedures, more detailed forms, all to "keep the mother informed". Time limits will be clawed back (Oops, sorry, but the fetus has nerve tissue now, we can't let you abort this late). The goal being to make it to expensive in terms of time and money to ever successfully get in under the wire.

When abortion is still technically legal, but effectively impossible, they'll declare victory. Seriously, I fully expect some politician to happily stand in front of a crowd and say that "We've made abortion so difficult to get in this state that no one successfully got one last year. Yay!"

Women who try to take things into their own hands will be charged with homicide. This could include self-induced abortions, using a back-alley abortionist, or simply traveling to a less-restrictive area. People who try to assist them will also be charged.

Predictions:

Pro-choice forces will come up with some way of giving women information remotely. decentralized web-sites with information on how to do your own abortion safely. Anti-abortion forces will try to infiltrate these sites, set up "look-alike" sites, etc. Legislatures will try to make the web-sites illegal.

You'll need to give personal information when buying home pregnancy kits.

Laws that outlaw helping people procure an abortion will become more draconian. Walk a woman past the clinic's protesters? That's a fine. Take her to another state? That's jail time. Hell, simply encouraging someone to get an abortion will become illegal.

It makes me glad I'm Canadian. Things aren't perfect here, but they are better. Calgary has an abortion clinic and it's generally free of protesters (due to court injunctions they have to stay well away from it - typically hundreds of feet). Of course, the fact that the building is built to withstand small explosives is testament to the fact that we're not yet as enlightened as I'd like.

Anyway, the whole thing is another attempt to punish women for all kinds of things: Chief among them having sex. Also violating traditional gender roles - married homemakers should want babies, and unmarried women shouldn't require abortions because they're not having sex. There are no other categories.

It all boils down to men making the decisions because women can't be trusted to make the right decisions themselves. It's patronizing, mean-spirited and increases the amount of suffering in the world.

Comments

Re contraception

[wild-wanderer.livejournal.com]

You are correct. But you are choosing to have sex. That is your choice. Making the assumption that someone has taken all the precautions but still becomes pregnant, I still believe they made the choice to have sex. They should know the potential consequences and dela with them, without my money.

As I have said...

While I am against abortion, if I got a lady pregnant and she chose to have the abortion, I would pay my share (and hers if she could not afford it). I just would not go with her to have it done. I do not feel it my right to tell her she can not have an abortion. And since I would have been responsible for the pregnancy I would do my share.

Why should others pay for our mistake/accident

Re: Re contraception

[mallt.livejournal.com]

Yes it's a choice but you have to be realistic as well... it's not realistic for a government to expect all the people in its population to abstain for sex (unless they are trying for a child) for the entire of their fertile lives. As such they put in place such things as free contraceptives, abortions etc... these things take money so it comes out of their tax revinue. As snooness pointed out, if these things were not funded by the government they'd end up with different expenses due to the increased number of pregnancies.

Re: Re contraception

[wild-wanderer.livejournal.com]

I agree these are things to consider. Unfortunately we live in a society that believes we owe them something. Why does the Canadian population OWE someone an abortion?

Re: Re contraception

[danceintheabyss.livejournal.com]

As a person who had an unwanted pregnancy (but not in the end an unwanted or unloved child) I feel I should put in my two cents on the emotional toll an unexpected/unwanted pregnancy can have on one. I never personally never considered an abortion as I personnally believe that abortions should only be had if it is a health issue or in the rare case that rape or incest has resulted in pregnancy. (If you want one thats your choice, I won't pervent you or tell you your wrong, this is simply my personal philosophy on the matter okay.) Anyhoo. I went thru months of self doubt, self recrimination, major stress as I worried about money and the fact that the man I was with (incidently now my hubby) I was not sure of how I felt about him anymore. I used to dream of having a miscarriage, then beat myself up for thinking such an awful thing. I have no doubt that this worry and stress all during my pregnancy led in large part to my post partem deppression. One of the few things that got me thru those months was the fact that I KNEW I HAD A CHOICE if it ever came to it. If I didn't have that choice, if my options were to carry the baby to term and raise it, I'm certain I would have gone quite nuts and quite possibly ended my own life. Knowing that you have a choice, that that option is out there is so important.

Re: Re contraception

[mallt.livejournal.com]

A person is no more owed an abortion as owed having, say, their leg fixed because a car hit it... she did not choose to get pregnant, he did not choose to get hit by a car... she had a choice about having sex, he had a choice about crossing the road, she could have made a mistake or had an accident, so could he (crossing when he should or shouldn't)... are we saying we don't mend his broken leg?

Other thoughts on the way home...
Why not go through with a pregnancy... it's RISKY even in this country with good health care... death is rare here but the mother may still need special care, the baby could be premature & that's hugely expensive, etc.

Which works out more expensive to the tax payer in the long run... an abortion or child support? I don't know about here but in the UK a mother gets child support regardless of her income & is paid until they are 18 or longer if they are in full time education.

Re: Re contraception

[wild-wanderer.livejournal.com]

Once again the difference is a broken leg is being fixed and healing
an abortion is not IMO healing it is killing.

Re: Re contraception

[mallt.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to get started on that, you are entitled to your opinion.
However it has no bearing on whether or not someone should be able to get a government funded abortion.