"I would suggest that it is very much the case that those of us in the majority support [the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act"] because it is the morally right thing to do, but it is also very, very true that having a growing population and having new children brought into the world is not harmful to job creation. It very much promotes job creation for all the care and services and so on that need to be provided by a lot of people to raise children."—Republican Virginia Representative Bob Goodlatte, during a House Judiciary Committee session on HR 7, which would "dramatically restrict women's access to affordable abortion care by imposing restrictions on insurance coverage and tax credits for the procedure. ...In reality, denying women autonomy over their reproductive lives is not a wise economic policy."
In addition to Goodlatte being straight-up factually wrong that restricting abortion is wise economic policy and also just being an indecent, autonomy-hostile creep, this is another example of what I call cultural reproductive coercion. He is literally suggesting that women et. al. be compelled to give birth against our wills because it's our patriotic duty.
There can be no meaningful choice when the context of choosing whether to parent is a space in which elected representatives of your government imply that one of the potential choices is traitorous.
Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.
blog comments powered by Disqus