—
Today is the 47th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. We’re all well versed in the arguments for and against abortion, which typically relate to either a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her body and / or the right to privacy, but we’d like to explore what abortion rights mean to you as it relates to gender equality.
Specifically we’d like to introduce a discussion based on the following excerpt from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “The High Court […] has treated reproductive autonomy under a substantive due process/personal autonomy headline not expressly linked to discrimination against women,” she wrote in a paper (pdf, p. 376) in 1985. “The conflict […] is not simply one between a fetus’ interests and a woman’s interests, narrowly conceived, nor is the overriding issue state versus private control of a woman’s body for a span of nine months. Also in the balance is a woman’s autonomous charge of her full life’s course […] her ability to stand in relation to man, society, and the state as an independent, self-sustaining, equal citizen.”
—
Our ground rules for this discussion and any that follow are as follows: Engaging in this discussion requires those who partake to critically evaluate current evidence, examine personal convictions based on values and beliefs, and synthesize relevant information. We encourage all who participate to do so with respect for others points of views. #thebeeandthefox_discusses