Right -- it's a question of power. Anti-abortionists seek to cast the conflict as one between "innocent" fetuses and "guilty" women and abortionists. Since fetuses themselves are not independent of pregnant women, they can have no interest in the right and power to override the will of women. The conflict is not at bottom between the state and individuals, though. It exists between classes, culturally mediated by gender and sexuality. The power elite -- including women among them -- are hardly inconvenienced by existing regulations of bodies, including but not limited to burdens on working-class women who seek abortion. It's working-class women (and men, too) who want to enjoy sexuality for its own sake, pleasure, not for procreation that are the objects of state regulations. The less control over their own bodies that working-class individuals have, the more power the power elite get. One of Jenny's posts pointed directly to the class struggle perspective on abortion and other issues of reproductive rights and freedoms:
At 12:23 PM -0500 1/30/03, JBrown72073 at cs.com wrote:
>for women, the right to vote and the right to determine whether we
>bear children are the rights 'with which we secure all the others.'
>And if you don't think so, look at how the birth dearth in Europe
>and Japan has helped maintain funding that helps parents.
Control of working-class bodies -- especially working-class sexuality and reproduction -- translates into control of the conditions under which we must sell our labor-power.
The ruling class, however, seldom get themselves directly involved in campaigns against abortion in rich industrialized nations (conservative foundations are exceptions to this generalization), though they may do so in poor nations. Instead, power in this instance wells up from below, in the Foucauldian biopolitical fashion, and ends up in the hands of the power elite.
At 4:07 PM -0800 1/30/03, Ian Murray wrote:
> > This so-called "paradox" exists in the United States (among other
>> nations) for simple reasons of _presence of sexism_ and _absence of
> > social democracy_, not because of any complex philosophical "aporia."
>> In Sweden, which is less sexist and more social democratic than the
>> USA, there is no such paradox in practice:
>>
>> ***** Abortion is a right in Sweden and is free on request until
>> the eighteenth week of pregnancy.
>>
> > <http://cwr.utoronto.ca/cultural/english/sweden/health.html> *****
>=========================
>
>Sweden also has 10 million people with an electorate of maybe 7
>million, whereas the US has 280+ million with far greater levels of
>ethnic, religious etc. diversity thus making collective action for
>achieving social democratic objectives via the ballot box far more
>difficult. The Swedes have their own public/private distinctions,
>they're just different from the USA's.
Sweden isn't free from sexism and exploitation, but on balance Swedes are better off than Americans in this regard and many others. As for religious "diversity," that's an odd euphemism for the strength of fundamentalism in the USA. With regard to ethnic "diversity," I'd simply say that the USA today has little ethnic "diversity" -- ethnic differences within races tend to get obliterated or domesticated soon after immigration -- but much racial oppression, and it is racial oppression that makes the US working class much more powerless than the Swedish one.
At 3:58 PM -0800 1/30/03, Ian Murray wrote:
> > I don't intend to defend women's right to choose abortion or carry
>> pregnancy to term as we see fit from those who oppose abortion on
>> LBO-talk. It's a _Left_ Business Observer discussion listserv, after
> > all, where discussion should rise to a level higher than a simple
>> defense of women's right to choose. Those who don't like abortion
>> had better talk to themselves; their opposition to abortion
> > disqualifies them from modes of intercourse other than masturbation.
>=================
>
>So you're against free speech for anti-abortion activists?
Your question is a non sequitur. In any case, there is no anti-abortion "activist" on LBO-talk, unless you distort the meaning of the term "activists" beyond recognition. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>