[Fwd: Culture and Technology (was Re: Abortion, Killing etc)]

[Katha Pollitt <kpollitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
 If reproductive technologies keep pushing back the point of 'fetal
> viability' earlier and earlier, and if the effects of successful
> technological intervention in this regard is increased anti-abortion and
> abortion-ambivalent sentiments, should we not anticipate that the trimester
> system itself may become unviable (if not so already)?  What may be an
> American feminist response to this technological trend?
>
> To move the question into another direction, we shouldn't forget the
> question of culture as it mediates technology.  We don't hear of the
> French, the Swedish, etc. killing doctors who perform abortions.  Do you
> have any data to indicate that medical advance in reproductive technologies
> have changed their minds as well and have made them more anti-aboriton,
> approximating American culture?


   Yoshie, fetal viability does have limits, because before (I think)
22-24 weeks the lungs are not developed enough to breath. So I don't
think we'll see 14 week old fetuses that can be  preserved alive outside
womb. In Arizona, anti-choicers succeeded in having viability set at 20
weeks, with abortion banned afterward, but this is (besides
unconstitutional) not good science, it's just politics.
  As for France and Scandinavia.  Well, in France, Abortion is illegal
after (I think) 12 weeks. They are now fighting over extending legality
a few more weeks. France is also acquiring a more active,
'american-style" anti-choice movement  ( this is happening in some other
European countries too).  In some ways, French women are worse off than
we are! (on the plus side, though, abortion is paid for by national
health, and everyone has access to health care.  Still many French women
have to go to Britain for later abortions-- and until very recently,
maybe even still, I don't know the latest, it was illegal to give a
French woman the phone number of a British abortion clinic!)
Scandinavia is a different case -- there abortion is legal till much
later (forget exact number of weeks), is paid for by national health,
and is not so stigmatized. I don't think they have an active anti-choice
movement. Why not? Well, people aren't so violent and crazy there
period, guns, bombs etc are hard to get, they have neither Catholics or
Fundamentalist protestants, and very few people are religious period.
Neither Scandinavia nor France have our kind of  fanaticism, or sexual
puritanism or family values obsession.  they have much better sex
education,better teen and adult access to contraceptives too, and a
whole different attitude toward the place of sex in life.  So there are
fewer unwanted pregnancies.
  One other point: in (i think) all the european countries, abortion is
more restricted than in US, on paper at least. you need to get a
doctor's, or even (In Britain) two doctors', permission.You need to give
reasons. In France, Britain and Scan, this presents no problem , but I
sometimes wonder if that medical figleaf helps take abortion out of the
realm of sex and puts it in the realm of, well, medicine. theoretically,
of course, we're against that (don't want doctors controlling our
bodies, why should we have to justify our choices to anyone etc).  But I
wonder if  the fact that it's not, after all, "abortion on demand"
hasn't defused some of critique of abortion as "convenience,"
"selfishness," "individualism," just another crazy thing women do.




> I think that as long as _all_ abortions, not just very late ones, are
> considered to be weighty moral choices, we can't even avoid the avoidable
> cases of late abortions.  All weighty moral choices or choices regarded as
> such cause deliberation, individual and collective, so the result of
> looking at all abortions as weighty moral choices is the scrutiny of the
> motives and circumstances of women who want to abort, especially in a very
> sexist and puritanical society.  How do we counter this view of all
> abortions as weighty moral choices?  Any thoughts?
>
  Well, I guess speaking for myself, early abortions don't seem morally
problematic -- the fetus is  the size of a pea! Even Dr. koop couldn't
find evidence that women who had early abortions felt bad later, as the
anti-choicers insist they do.   Later ones seem more complex. For
instance.  I thought a lot about amniocentesis while i was waiting for
my results to come back. If the news had been bad, i would have had an
abortion, but if the defect was not totally catastrophic but lets say
Down Syndrome, I would have felt, in addition to miserable, guilty and
selfish as well. I think that's a common feeling, even though 80 percent
of women with down syndrome babies-to-be do decide to abort. You can do
something, and think it was the best choice, but still feel like you're
not quite the person you want to be.
  But yes, you're right. If something is conceived of as having a moral
dimension other people do scrutinize and comment.  i see no solution for
this -- why should abortion be different than the other things people
do, that friends and strangers feel able to judge and criticize? the
crucial thing is that the woman gets to decide, not the kibitzers. It's
like lots of people might disapprove of a love affair, or a divorce --
they might even be right! -- but they shouldn't get to force others to
be faithful, or stay married. People are really judgmental, you can't
change that.
  I know someone who had five abortions in her twenties (now she's the
mother of teen twins). I never breathed a word to her of course -- and
of course i think it was better for her to abort than bear kids she
didn't want.  But I felt what she was doing was childish and
self-destructive and basically all about proving she wasn't a good
little  middle-class suburban girl, acting out some struggle with her
parents (the five abortions weren't the only example of this ). I didn't
think the five abortions were killing, much less murder-- but they
creeped me out. but if abortion is just nothing, then why not use it as
your method of birth control, as she basically did? It just seemed to me
there was a big disregard there. I have another friend, though, who had
three abortions, despite much birth controlling. And that seemed
different. Not that either of these women should care what i think! But
I can't help thinking.

 Katha