Friday, January 23. 2009War Against the WeakTrackbacks
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They've learned that as long as they cloak it in the word "choice" and express a concern for "population", they can get away with it.
As P.J. O'Rourke put it, population alarmism is an underhanded way of being racist. The message is "Just enough of me, way too many of you."
If you're worried that American women will be sterilized against their wills, your first line of defense against this will be ... (can you guess?) ... THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE ACT (FOCA)!!
Besides guaranteeing the right to choose abortion, FOCA also guarantees the right to have a baby. That's your protection against forced sterilization AND against forced abortion. RTLs hated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) too. Yammered endlessly about "free speech" and "criminalizing Christianity" and called Big Bill "The Abortion President" for signing it. Now, they love FACE because it protects churches from blockade, theft, vandalism, and terrorism. Similarly, you'll all be grateful for FOCA after it becomes law.
Stephen Jay Gould wrote movingly about this in The Mismeasure of Man. Too bad he didn't make the connection with abortion.
SoMG, Is that why we're now back to funding coercive and forced abortions in other countries under the aegis of choice?
BTW,
I was wondering if you'd consider a post on this: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/fda-approves-em.html
Cminor, regarding forced abortions in China, yes, that bothers me. But. The fact is it's just one of a very long list of appalling medical outrages perpetrated by the Chinese Government on its citizens. If the one-child-per-family policy is a reason not to work with them on population control, then there are more or less equally good reasons not to work with them on any medical issue, which would be harmful and stupid policy.
Here's my favorite China-is-different story: A Reagan-era diplomat was gently chastising his Chinese counterpart over lunch. "Why are Chinese people not free to leave China and live where they want? Isn't that a basic human right?" The Chinese diplomat chewed his mouthful, swallowed deliberately, and answered: "How many Chinese immigrants would the USA like? A million? Ten million? Fifty million?"
So you're suggesting that it's acceeptable to support coercive abortion as long as it's in the interest of population control and imposed on people who do not have the good fortune to live in a country in which the rights of individuals are recognized? Spare me the red herrings, dude; the fact that there are several good places to draw ethical lines on medical "aid" to China in no way excuses us from drawing lines at all.
I think it very naive to presume that legislation designed for the primary purpose of abolishing any and all restrictions on abortion will, because of three instances of lip service to the "right to give birth" in its text, indefinitely protect American women from abortion or sterilization coercion should an increasingly controlling government decide that preventing certain births is an overriding concern. Incidentally, I am dubious that FACE grants churches any protections that weren't already covered by anti-vandalism and anti-riot statutes, not to mention that little point in the Bill of Rights about religious freedom. Some churches in California might beg to differ with you. Anyhow, if most churches would also fit the definition of a "clinic" according to FACE, it is an inexcusably vaguely worded piece of legislation. |
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