03.15.2012
Media

People who think you can get rid of abortion by passing scores of draconian laws, are either idiots or they are living in a dream world. My grandmother was a poor immigrant woman who spoke virtually no English and certainly had no knowledge of birth control. What she did have was a husband who was chronically unemployed and a crowded Bronx apartment full of children to feed. She ended up having eight abortions – on her kitchen table. There was a woman who used to come around and do them on demand for a modest fee. I rejoiced when abortion was finally legal in this country because that meant women didn’t have to make desperate choices and suffer the way my grandmother did. The idea that a woman should be punished for her sexuality by forcing her to bear unwanted children, doesn’t help anybody. It doesn’t help the woman, it doesn’t help the man and it doesn’t help the child. Some women, like my grandmother, are more fertile than others and as such will be more likely to face unexpected pregnancies. Why should they be penalized by a bunch of leering swine?