{"id":3312,"date":"2007-04-18T18:42:30","date_gmt":"2007-04-19T01:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/04\/18\/gonzales-decision-we-help-women-by-removing-their-autonomy\/"},"modified":"2007-04-18T18:42:30","modified_gmt":"2007-04-19T01:42:30","slug":"gonzales-decision-we-help-women-by-removing-their-autonomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=3312","title":{"rendered":"Gonzales Decision: We Help Women By Removing Their Autonomy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the clunkiest passage of his Gonzales<\/em> decision, Justice Kennedy claims<\/a> that banning late-term abortion is justified because he cares about women sooooo <\/em>much:<\/p>\n

Respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in the bond of love the mother has for her child. The Act recognizes this reality as well. Whether to have an abortion requires a difficult and painful moral decision. While we find no reliable data to measure the phenomenon, it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained. Severe depression and loss of esteem can follow.<\/p>\n

In a decision so fraught with emotional consequence some doctors may prefer not to disclose precise details of the means that will be used, confining themselves to the required statement of risks the procedure entails. From one standpoint this ought not to be surprising. Any number of patients facing imminent surgical procedures would prefer not to hear all details, lest the usual anxiety preceding invasive medical procedures become the more intense. This is likely the case with the abortion procedures here in issue. […]<\/p>\n

It is self-evident that a mother who comes to regret her choice to abort must struggle with grief more anguished and sorrow more profound when she learns, only after the event, what she once did not know: that she allowed a doctor to pierce the skull and vacuum the fast-developing brain of her unborn child, a child assuming the human form.<\/p>\n

It is a reasonable inference that a necessary effect of the regulation and the knowledge it conveys will be to encourage some women to carry the infant to full term, thus reducing the absolute number of late-term abortions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

The illogical of that last point is astounding; how is “knowledge conveyed” by banning a particular abortion procedure? Surely banning a procedure makes doctors less <\/em>likely to describe it to patients.<\/p>\n

If the PBA ban does prevent any abortions at all — and this is the first time I’ve seen anyone suggest it will — it will be because the extra health risk Justice Kennedy’s decision imposes on women will be a deterrent. But few, if any, pro-lifers would be willing to openly admit that they want to make abortion more likely to injure or kill women in order to create a deterrent.<\/p>\n

In response, Justice Ginsburg correctly linked Kennedy’s crocodile tears for poor, helpless women with traditional sexist attitudes towards women. From Justice Ginsburg’s dissent<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Revealing in this regard, the Court invokes an antiabortion shibboleth for which it concededly has no reliable evidence: Women who have abortions come to regret their choices, and consequently suffer from “[s]evere depression and loss of esteem.” Because of women\u2019s fragile emotional state and because of the \u201cbond of love the mother has for her child,\u201d the Court worries, doctors may withhold information about the nature of the intact D&E procedure.<\/p>\n

The solution the Court approves, then, is not <\/i>to require doctors to inform women, accurately and adequately, of the different procedures and their attendant risks. Instead, the Court deprives women of the right to make an autonomous choice, even at the expense of their safety.<\/p>\n

This way of thinking reflects ancient notions about women\u2019s place in the family and under the Constitution\u2014ideas that have long since been discredited.<\/p>\n

Though today\u2019s majority may regard women\u2019s feelings on the matter as “self-evident,” this Court has repeatedly confirmed that “[t]he destiny of the woman must be shaped \u2026 on her own conception of her spiritual imperatives and her place in society.” …”[M]eans chosen by the State to further the interest in potential life must be calculated to inform the woman\u2019s free choice, not hinder it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the clunkiest passage of his Gonzales decision, Justice Kennedy claims that banning late-term abortion is justified because he cares about women sooooo much: Respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in the bond of love the mother has … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-partial-birth-abortion","category-abortion-reproductive-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}