“A woman’s right to bodily autonomy outweighs fetal pain because we live in a society that does not force people to use their bodies to support others — not their organs, not their bone marrow, not their blood, not their skin. We do not force people to sacrifice parts of their bodies to save others not because we don’t care about a patient’s pain, but because we recognize that bodily autonomy is an essential part of a functioning free society. To suggest that we ignore that and make an exception when it comes to forcing pregnant women carry a pregnancy to term suggests that we force pregnant women to submit to a violation of their rights that we impose on no one else.”
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Ana Mardoll via Shakesville
http://www.shakesville.com/2013/03/the-rhetorical-power-of-pig-pain.html (via catronicon)
This is actually what many people do suggest when it comes to pregnant women all the time, though, (forced transvaginal ultrasounds before you can receive an abortion for starters) and it all goes back to the idea that a woman’s body is community property all the time, not just when she’s pregnant.