The Other Edge of the Anti-Privacy Knife

The Happy Feminist (who certainly wouldn’t be happy if she knew that women were walking around…with breasts! If feminism stands for anything, it’s that wearing an Ann Taylor top is equivalent to an offer of a blow job, and anyone who believes otherwise is clearly some sellout…) discusses this story about about parents who tried to force their daughter to obtain an abortion. (Personal to James Joyner: see, that’s kidnapping.) On a related note, it’s worth pointing that if critiques of Roe that start from the basis that there’s no such thing as a implied right to privacy or security of the person implicit in the Constitution are correct, the state can force women to obtain abortions as well as preventing them from obtaining abortions. Indeed, a crucial foundation of Roe was a case that held that the involuntary sterilization of pretty thieves was unconstitutional. (This also reminds me of perhaps my favorite example of abortion bans being about regulating sexuality rather than fetal life: Pat Robertson’s defense of forced abortions in China. See, if abortion is about coercing women, that’s fine!)

And a question for sensible pro-choice centrists: since you’re always claiming that parental notification and consent laws are not about preventing classes of young women from obtaining abortions but about giving parents input and information like they would allegedly have for any medical procedure, I’m sure you’ll agree that a law that required parental notification or consent if a young woman decided to carry a pregnancy to term is equally desirable? After all, given that this is considerably more dangerous to a woman’s health than obtaining an abortion, the justification for such a bill would be if anything more compelling…