This Body Belongs To Me

Senator Brownback (R, Kan) and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, made a point at the National Catholic Men’s Conference, that even in the case of rape, women should be denied the right to an abortion. (Guess he didn't have the guts to say this to a roomful of women.)

I don’t get it. Why should a woman be forced to be what is essentially nothing more than a vessel? Why should her life, her body, be of less value and consideration than a fetus’s? If Brownback and others have their way, the hapless rape victim will first lose control of her body through the act of rape, and then will once again lose control as she is forced to bring the fetus to term.

Why is the right of a woman to control her body so difficult for some to understand?

At least California’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals understands. The court recently overturned a decision by an immigration judge to deny asylum to a couple from China based on forced abortion. The immigration judge simply could not comprehend how a government edict ordering an abortion is “forced.” But the Circuit Court found that just as forced sterilization is grounds for asylum in the US, so is forced abortion.

The court's decision has nothing to do with fetuses, religion, right-to-life, etc., but everything to do with a woman’s right to control her body. Three cheers for California’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Look, the issue is really rather simple: The right to control one's body is basic. Without this control, one is nothing more than chattel.