I thought I did answer your question. I think I referred to thinking it was so important i'd be overjoyed to triage another charity to contribute to this cause. But maybe we were just talking about third world women now cut off by Bush's executive order? It applies to U.S. women, too.
Women have never been denied a safe abortion in the sense you use the word "deny." ---- If they had the money, they hopped on a plane and flew to where it was available. The economic qualification just started at a much higher income level.
Those without a ticket felt denied, though.
In cases in which money makes the difference, what I've meant to say is that non-funding is de facto denial to a pregnant poor woman (or one who can't get the money from her husband) of a medical choice available to her better-off sister. It's a version, or inversion, of the line from Anatole France, "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the poor, to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."
No, you aren't putting a gun to anybody's head and saying "Reproduce." But those who say, "Get an abortion if you want it," to those who want it but can't pay for it are giving advice that has the result I described: Those functional enough to pay for their own abortions, get them. Those not, get unwanted babies we are liable to support, and our children are likely to support the children of. |
