This NY Times article quotes Justice Anthony M. Kennedy as presuming to associate womanhood with the issue of abortion
Now, first of all, where does he get off trying to dictate what constitutes womanhood? If women who choose not to carry on with an unwanted or risky pregnancy are deemed as falling away from “true womanhood,” whatever the fuck that means, then what do women who never become pregnant become? Gender neutral entities that are aberrations to their own sex because their uterus has not produced a living being? Infertile women or those who (intentionally or unintentionally) just never get around to having children are now not living up to some wacky moral standard of his that should be upheld? Fuck you, Justice Kennedy! My uterus is not the sole definition of who I am as a person OR as a woman.
Secondly, it is nobody’s business if a woman does not want to carry through with her pregnancy besides that woman and her physician. It is not a judge’s right to deduce that this woman has loose morals, regardless of the reason behind terminating the pregnancy. Now, of course, the “respect for human life” should extend to things beyond a woman’s womb, of course. If carrying a pregnancy to term is likely to carry great harm to the woman, then wouldn’t the woman’s prior existence trump the fetus, as the fetus is still a cluster of cells with the potential to either survive or die off spontaneously at any point in the future?
Not all women are meant to bear lots and lots of children, and it would be stupid to assume in this day and age that every woman should fulfill her “moral obligation” to be an ambulatory womb and teat just because she could. Why does the status of my [lack of] childbearing have to be a moral issue?
Do be fair to Justice Asswipe, he never actually said the words “falls away from womanhood”, at least that was not quoted in the article.
But this reminds me of the cab driver who, when learning that my then-GF was about to get a hysterectomy, advised me to leave her. A real woman, according to him, would give me babies early and often. Yeah. Abandon the one you love when she’s staring down the barrel of a major operation. Real compassionate. Fuckwit.
Well, the “falling away from true womanhood” thing isn’t what Kennedy’s opinion said. It’s just the New York Time’s opinion of what they thought he meant. Here’s what the actually said:
OneCentStamp, my Caucasian relatives say wacky stuff like that all the time, so it’s not entirely unheard of. No bearing on tdn’s tale of course, but I’m just saying.
Hey, why worry about what the Justice actually did or didn’t say? The OP wants to have a good old rant against anyone anywhere who’s perceived as having said anything negative about any abortion at all, and what better way than to equate what Kennedy said with calling her a walking womb? Have at it, say I.
Bullshit. Respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in not killing people. Now one may argue ad nauseum whether abortion falls under the category of “killing people”, but that has nothing to do with the mother/child bond, let alone with any definition of femininity that I subscribe to.
This was part of the point I was trying to make, and didn’t do such a great job at it. The Justice’s comment about respect for life being ultimately tied to a mother’s love of her child can logically be drawn out that he has some less than nice feelings toward women who choose not to be part of the motherhood role that is expected of them. The NYT obviously pulled it out a little farther and made this implication that motherhood is directly tied to womanhood within this moral stance, right or wrong.
I think the Court did the wrong thing, but Kennedy didn’t say respect for life is tied to having children. He said the bond between a mother and child is the ultimate expression of respect for life. I’m not sure I agree, but it doesn’t sound objectionable.
That’s your opinion, I guess. I happen to agree with the judge. In my opinion, you come to the fullest possible understanding of the preciousness of human life when you have a child. Opinions differ.
I’m not precisely sure what that has to do with abortion. But, that’s my opinion.
Nah, the guy who lived next to my parents said the same thing about his wife when she got one. He left her because “She wasn’t a woman anymore” so his desire for sex with her went away. Fuckwit white guy.
I would not agree with that statement as worded. Strike ‘ultimate’ from the sentence and then I’m OK with it. There are several things far worse than dying, and therefore worse than killing.
