This is an interesting and controversial development in Oklahoma: HERE.
(I'll just note that the lawmaker quoted is giving a particular reading (without mentioning that) of a famous argument by a philosopher named Judith Jarvis Thomson. You'll see that name again.)
Why do women need a permission from a man to preform an abortion?? This is a bill that aims to stop abortion in a more sexist way. - Iad Alhallak
ReplyDeleteThe concept of being a "host" makes the baby seem like some sort of parasite, which might not have been the best move for a lawmaker who is trying to "protect the lives of unborn babies" considering that we usually try to remove parasites. As a women, I also find the concept of being considered simply a host for a baby, as if that baby did not contain half my genome, very degrading. This lawmaker produces an image where a man somehow puts the baby into a women, and the women only acts as an incubating site for its growth and development, which displays a fundamental misunderstanding of how babies are actually created.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Elizabeth, referring to women as "hosts" gives me the vision of some awful sci-fi story in which women are brought into space for the sole purpose of colonizing a planet. Basically once a woman is pregnant she does not have the same rights because she is seen as a tool or "incubating site" as Elizabeth said. Some people cannot wrap their minds around the fact that women can do more than just bear children. Perhaps if pregnancy did not cause such a conflict with careers, women would not feel the need to end pregnancies but unfortunately maternity/paternity leave in the U.S. is a joke. Maybe that is what we should actually be protesting about.
ReplyDelete-Madison Blue