Why Abortion Isn’t Just About Abortion | Dawn Laguens
Simply put, abortion isn’t just about abortion. It’s about a woman’s power to determine her own destiny, to plan her own life. That power is diminished when any medical procedure, including abortion, is made illegal… or prohibitively expensive… or practically impossible to obtain.
Comparing abortion rights to tax policy, as the TEDWomen organizer did, ignores the reality of the abortion issue. This isn’t just a question of whether a woman is allowed the choice to have an abortion. It’s about whether that choice really exists for her — without having to drive six hours, or buy an extra insurance policy, or face the withering scorn of state legislators who force her to hear a misleading lecture before the procedure.
Like many other feminists, I find discussions about balancing work and family to be fascinating, important, and (as the mother of triplets) extremely relevant to my own life. But those discussions begin with the assumption that these choices are mine to make. And, unfortunately, that’s just not the reality for too many women in America and around the world.
Want to fix that? Then we have to talk about abortion. That’s what Planned Parenthood and other advocates are doing: broadening the national conversation on abortion to help people understand how women’s lives really work.
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