akin flap undermines privacy rights for ALL women
Akin Flap Undermines Privacy Rights for All Women
It might seem like a pro-choice glimmer out of the GOP. But don't buy it. Romney and Ryan's show of support of abortion rights for rape victims could be undermining the right to privacy that all pregnant women have under Roe v. Wade.
(WOMENSENEWS)--I see danger. By highlighting the rights of specific women in the most extreme cases to do what they wish with their own body, may we, the people who support a woman's right to choose in any and all cases, be tacitly giving our approval to the argument that only certain women have a right to abortions?
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We are witnessing a rare political moment: Almost everyone in the country seems to agree that the man is an idiot, a disgrace, or both. Not only did Akin try to make up science out of thin air, he also made a dubious distinction where obviously none should exist – "legitimate" rape versus some abstract "non-legitimate" rape.
He has also opened a conversation at this pivotal moment about what are legitimate and non-legitimate, or less legitimate, reasons that women should have access to abortions. Is abortion only OK if a woman has been raped? That idea is seeping into public discourse as a disconcerting byproduct.
If we aren't careful--and don't call it out--it could further undermine our political commitment to abortion rights as something that belongs to every woman in any circumstance as part of her right to privacy, as set forth by the Supreme Court in Roe. v. Wade in 1973.
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http://womensenews.org/story/abortion/120822/akin-flap-undermines-privacy-rights-all-women
