Day By Day

Saturday, February 07, 2009

More Situational Principles

A woman's right to control her body is absolute, or so we have been told by feminists for generations. But now that seems not to be the case. Hard core feminista Ellen Goodman has decided that some women's reproductive rights need to be curtailed. Don Surber notes the irony:

After years of railing against abortion laws — [championing] reproductive rights — of saying its my womb and I’ll do what I want with it — Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Ellen Goodman is now calling for the regulation of reproduction.

In a column today, she wrote: “Does anyone have a right to tell anyone else how many kids to have? Can only people who can afford them bear children? Do you need a husband to have a baby? These are questions that make us feel queasy when we are talking about old-fashioned families. But they take on a new flavor in the unregulated wild west of fertility technology.”

....

So much for a woman’s choice to have a kid. Or 2. Or 8. Or 14. Mrs. Goodman wants the government to dictate the number.

Her rationale: the mother doesn't have the economic resources to pay for the kids' medical bills, therefore the burden falls on us, the taxpayers. Therefore we have a right to restrict this woman's reproductive rights.

So kids, there you have it. Goodman has abandoned “reproductive rights” in favor of the government dictating the size of families.

And she has abandoned the call for universal health care because, gee, it is so expensive.

Liberals used to have principles. I think.

Great catch, Don. Read it here. Followup here.