assertion that there IS a patriarchy. There fave been no male or female scholars or legal minds that have argued that there is no patriarchy, or the patriarchy is justified for these reasons, or made any substantive justification for the centuries-old subjugation of women by a patriarchy. Combine that with the unarguable fact that in this country, the right to rule at all stems from the consent of the governed. I think it is time, and past time, for women to assert their right to rule their own bodies. It will be difficult, perhaps impossible for the moment, but if there is no secular justification for sexist enslavement of women, women will not consent to any law that results in enforced child bearing. Women should make the argument that men can do all the jobs women now do for free and willingly if they attempt to use the power of the state to enforce pregnancy. Men can care for the infants, supervise the school children, teach them, care for their parents in old age, and just run this country without the help of women.

The argument is that the governmental institutions of a patriarchy do not have the right to enforce pregnancy on a woman's body. Period. For any reason. Women should not have to ask for forgiveness because they were raped, or their daughter is pregnant by her father, or the fetus is badly damaged. The state has no right to oversee or make judgments on her use of her body to have a baby, or to not have a baby.

I really would like to see this as an Amendment to the Constitution of this country. Just like the Amendment that men like to misunderstand as giving them the right to firearms because they want to own them. Pregnancy and motherhood are serious business, and it's time this and every country recognized the degree to which women hold societies together. Our government needs to recognize that, and Get. Out. of. the. Way.