The Politics of Pregnancy
So I'm almost 42 weeks pregnant. I've had a lot of time to think about the rather strange state of childbearing in this country. On the one hand, since the decision Roe vs. Wade in 1973, every woman is guaranteed the right to decide whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, at least through about 20 weeks or so. To be honest, I can think of no circumstances under which I'm likely to take advantage of this. I think, though, that there are a lot of reasons that people feel the need for such a provision. Arguments are made about the difficulty of caring for severely deformed or mentally deficient children; about victims of rape; about women who have been abandoned by the child's father. Many people have the sense that pregnancy can be an unbearable burden for women, particularly those who do not have a partner or access to resources such as good health care and child care. Along with this is the sense that men should not be able to tell women what they can or cann...