I don't like having the RTLs on this side of the issue, believe me, it is not my cup of tea. One problem we have is distinguishing the disability perspective from the RTL (who by the way are always eager to portray us as RTL). I agree with you that abortion is a serious matter not like having an organ removed.
I support abortion but take the Adrienne Asche's position that it crosses the line when one aborts because one does not like the characteristic of the fetus (sex, disability, hair color, whatever else they will know about us in the womb) rather than having the abortion because the conditions in one's life makes that choice necessary to abort ANY fetus. This way I challenge assumptions about disablement as one would challenge the assumption that having a boy is more desirable than having a girl. I realize many many people view disability as a primary reason to abort. Trouble is the more market oriented our society becomes, the less willing parents are to have a non "perfect" baby.
Disability activists have only recently inserted ourselves into the issue whereas before the "professionals" always spoke ABOUT US WITHOUT US. There is still lots of confusion about how best to get our message out there without seeming RTL. And as within any identity group, (as with women) there will be some people with disabilities who do not favor abortion under any circumstances, but I am not one of those and neither are most advocates I know.
Marta
kelley wrote:
> > It is not
> such a leap to anticipate that the dumb liberals might be convinced to think
> that knocking off infants would be advancing individual rights.
>
> marta,
> well, you've got the very powerful anti abortion, rtl's on your side in
> this case. this guy will never get outside of academia with that one. not
> to mention it's clearly fascistic uses. i simply resented the connection
> between abortion rights advocacy here because you were implying that the
> parent's choices might be frivilious and this was a problem wrt abortion.
> i think not.
>
> however, thinking about it, i'd guess that you would want to raise your
> arguments and intersts and tie it into the thread. so perhaps more
> innocuous than i first interpreted it.
>
> kelley
-- Marta Russell author, Los Angeles, CA Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract http://www.commoncouragepress.com/ramps.html