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- Newsgroups: talk.abortion
- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!linac!uchinews!ellis!eeb1
- From: eeb1@ellis.uchicago.edu (e elizabeth bartley)
- Subject: Beth Bartley on Misogyny
- Message-ID: <1992Sep4.025157.7708@midway.uchicago.edu>
- Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System)
- Reply-To: eeb1@midway.uchicago.edu
- Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
- Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 02:51:57 GMT
- Lines: 37
-
- Usually I think that the pro-choice shouts of "misogyny" and
- "misogynist" are misplaced or at least unproven. A pro-life position
- is not necessarily evidence of misogyny; one can believe premises
- which lead inevitably to a position which hurts women without caring
- any less for women than for men.
-
- However, I have now found a position which is in itself misogynist, as
- its premises are necessarily misogynist. This is the position that
- since the "father" and the "mother" each contributed 50% of the fetus,
- they each deserve equal power over whether or not the fetus is
- aborted. This position is misogynist in and of itself, as it
- necessarily assigns no value to the woman's right to control her own
- body; assigning any value whatsoever to her "right to choose" would
- give her over half of the power to decide whether or not to have an
- abortion.
-
- By comparison, the position that "Abortions should be permitted only
- when the mother's life is in danger" can be derived from the premises
- that "the right to life of all humans who are potential people are
- equal (unless they waive said right to life by knowingly committing a
- crim)", that and that "the right to life is more important than the
- right to control own's body (and therefore, no own is allowed to kill
- a human who hasn't committed a crime in order to control own's own
- body)". The pure pro-life position probably would have more
- deleterious effects on woman than a "father's consent" position would.
- However, the premises of a pure pro-life position need not be
- misogynist; one can acknowledge a woman's right to control her own
- body but think it is overriden by the z/e/f's right to life. A
- "father's consent" position cannot be logically supported unless a
- woman has no right to control her own body, and thus the position is
- misogynist from its very premises.
-
- --
- Pro-Choice Anti-Roe - E. Elizabeth Bartley
- Abortions should be safe, legal, early, and rare.
-
- Cthulhu for President -- when you're tired of voting for the lesser of 2 evils.
-