The C is for Crank
Abortion Doctor Murder Case Highlights Need for Access
Slate's resident mansplainer, William Saletan, argues
that the horrific recent events involving illegal, unlicensed abortion provider Kermit Gosnell should be blamed on "feminists" and members of "the lefty blogosphere" who think women's right to choose extends to murdering babies after they're born. (Gosnell is charged with eight counts of murder, including one woman and seven full-term babies he allegedly delivered alive and killed with scissors).
Saletan suggests supporters of reproductive choice should use the allegations as an opportunity "to reflect on the limits of reproductive freedom."
The problem with Saletan's reasoning is that what Gosnell is accused of doing isn't abortion---it's murder. And no one in the pro-choice community---not those hussy feminists, not those uppity lefty bloggers, not even those who dare to suggest we should wait until the facts come out in Gosnell's trial before condemning him---is arguing otherwise. The only people who are saying that choice supporters of supporting the sort of actions Gosnell is accused of are anti-choicers.
And, to be clear: Women don't get late-term abortions---risky, often life-threatening, traumatic abortions---for the fun of it, or because they suddenly "changed their mind." In fact, they don't get them very often at all. According to the Guttmacher Institute , just 1.5 percent of abortions take place after 21 weeks' gestation, and the vast majority of those are women who wanted babies, but found out late in their pregnancies that either they or the baby is likely to die if they carry the pregnancy to term.These aren't women who get abortions because they waffled or took the idea of reproductive rights too far; they're women who got abortions because they had no better choice.
Moreover, one aspect of the story that Saletan ignores is that the women who were driven to go to Gosnell's unlicensed, filthy back-alley abortion clinic were overwhelmingly poor, minority women without access to any better option. (The woman who died of a heart arrhythmia because of excessive anesthesia under Gosnell's "care" was actually turned away by two clinics that did not perform abortions after 12 weeks before finally seeking an illegal-abortion option). All of which only highlights need for more access to, and federal funding for, abortions for poor women across the United States.
Saletan suggests supporters of reproductive choice should use the allegations as an opportunity "to reflect on the limits of reproductive freedom."
Throwing Gosnell in jail won't solve the problem. The women who came to him at 26, 28, or 30 weeks will show up somewhere else. And if you won't say no to them, you will have to say yes.
The problem with Saletan's reasoning is that what Gosnell is accused of doing isn't abortion---it's murder. And no one in the pro-choice community---not those hussy feminists, not those uppity lefty bloggers, not even those who dare to suggest we should wait until the facts come out in Gosnell's trial before condemning him---is arguing otherwise. The only people who are saying that choice supporters of supporting the sort of actions Gosnell is accused of are anti-choicers.
And, to be clear: Women don't get late-term abortions---risky, often life-threatening, traumatic abortions---for the fun of it, or because they suddenly "changed their mind." In fact, they don't get them very often at all. According to the Guttmacher Institute , just 1.5 percent of abortions take place after 21 weeks' gestation, and the vast majority of those are women who wanted babies, but found out late in their pregnancies that either they or the baby is likely to die if they carry the pregnancy to term.These aren't women who get abortions because they waffled or took the idea of reproductive rights too far; they're women who got abortions because they had no better choice.
Moreover, one aspect of the story that Saletan ignores is that the women who were driven to go to Gosnell's unlicensed, filthy back-alley abortion clinic were overwhelmingly poor, minority women without access to any better option. (The woman who died of a heart arrhythmia because of excessive anesthesia under Gosnell's "care" was actually turned away by two clinics that did not perform abortions after 12 weeks before finally seeking an illegal-abortion option). All of which only highlights need for more access to, and federal funding for, abortions for poor women across the United States.
