Yes, we do exist! 
Tigtog wrote last week about the reactionary Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart. If you’re an American citizen, and are concerned, you should urge your Senator and Congressperson to co-sponsor and support Barbara Boxer and Jerry Nadler’s Freedom of Choice Act. I’ve always been of the view – given considerations both of public sentiment and political strategy – that the legislative protection of reproductive rights will be much more secure than judicial decisions. Time to put Congress on the spot!
[Via Feministing.]
I agree with you, Kim, about the need for legislative protection. Obviously that could be overturned by a subsequent Act, though, so what is really needed is constituational protection.
Could this be at the heart of the continued opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment (now being resusciated for another run at ratification)? It could certainly be argued that requiring women to support with their blood and bone the life of another organism while not requiring men to donate kidneys etc for offspring who require transplants would be a violation of the ERA, n’est-ce pas?
Even if women do have “equality” enshrined in Equal Rights legislation it will still only be rights in a patriarchal system. The actual application or expression of any such rights will still be limited within cultural definitions and affected by women’s access to independent income, property, self-determination and all those other little incidentals which serve to continue female internalisation of subordination.
Well that’s true, Crowlie, but that’s no reason not to strive for such legislation. Though you may not be saying that…