(W)hat ought to be more frightening for women everywhere is the foundation on which they base those arguments: Women, they say, are incapable of making a rational decision to terminate a pregnancy, because it is in women's "nature" to care for children. Antiabortion laws, therefore, are "protecting women's rights" from predatory husbands, boyfriends and abortion providers. Yale Law School professor Riva Siegel has documented how antiabortion activists hope to use this rhetorical frame to "take back" the words "freedom" and "choice," in the process taking back more than a century of struggle to establish women as rational, thoughtful actors capable of making moral choices on our own behalf.
The worst mistake progressives can make is to assume either that this terrible law will fall of its own weight or that it is an isolated case that needn't worry the rest of the nation. More than a dozen other state legislatures, including Ohio and Missouri, have similarly draconian legislature pending.
Addendum:
Fight Extremists in South Dakota this Election Day!
The South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families is a coalition of concerned citizens and groups fighting the abortion ban in South Dakota. The ban is a ban on all abortions unless to prevent the death of a woman, and if South Dakota does not repeal it on November 7, it will become law. The extremists will be emboldened and ready to take this effort to every state.
In the next few days, we need to put a new ad on TV to educate undecided voters and tell them that the ban has no exception for women who face dangerous health situations.
Please contribute $10, $25 or $50 to support a woman's right to choose.
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