My Beeswax, None Of

A bunch of people have emailed me for a post about Nadya Suleman, the woman who just gave birth to octuplets. If you've heard anything about this story at all, you've heard that she already had six children under 10, declared bankruptcy less than two years ago, is single, used a sperm donor and IVF, lives with her parents, and her father has had to return to Iraq to find work to support the family.

All of which is, as far as I'm concerned, none of my business.

Being pro-choice means I don't judge the reproductive choices of other women. Period.

(And, no, the possibility that "the taxpayers" may have to foot some of the bill does not justify sticking our noses up a woman's cunt for inspection and judgment. Anyone who decides to become a parent may, at some point, have to rely on "the taxpayers" for their assistance; not a single person in the country is immune from misfortune; even wealth cannot inoculate against every circumstance. We provide a social safety net for everyone, not just the people we deem "deserving" because their choices meet with our approval. And let us try to remember that if any assistance is provided by the state, it will be for the children, who had no control over their circumstances.)

What I will say is that there appears to be a serious ethical and/or vetting problem with whatever medical facility did the implantation transferred the embryos (at least 6 more currently recommended by IVF practitioners). Based on the available information, no reasonable evaluation should have prescribed that a multiple pregnancy was psychologically or environmentally appropriate, and I fervently hope that whatever measures need to be put in place to improve the process are implemented immediately.

And what I will also say is that the media coverage and vast majority of public commentary on this have ranged from inappropriately speculative to wildly unhinged, and, at either end of that spectrum, reeking with anti-choice and misogynist rhetoric.

Neither of which would be at issue if we'd all just agree, at long last, that what a woman does with her body is her goddamned business.