The right to choose to abort a fetus is critical, as is the ability to effect that choice in real life, so it’s great that Hillary Clinton wants to repeal the Hyde Amendment. But without welfare, single-payer health care, a minimum wage of at least $15–all policies she staunchly opposes–many people have to forgo babies they’d really love to have. That’s not really a choice.It seems ill-conceived to have tethered feminism to such a narrow issue as abortion. Yet it makes sense from an insular Beltway fundraising perspective to focus on an issue that makes no demands–the opposite, really–of the oligarch class; this is probably a big reason why EMILY’S List has never dabbled in backing universal pre-K or paid maternity leave; a major reason ‘reproductive choice’ has such a narrow and negative definition in the American political discourse.The thing is, an abortion is by definition a story you want to forget, not repeat and relive. And for the same reason abortion pills will never be the blockbuster moneymakers heartburn medications are, abortion is a consummately foolish thing to attempt to build a political movement around. It happens once or twice in a woman’s lifetime.Kids, on the other hand, are with you forever. A more promising movement–one that goes against everything Hillary Clinton stands for–might take that to heart.
The right to choose to abort a fetus is critical, as is the ability to effect that choice in real life, so it’s great that Hillary Clinton wants to repeal the Hyde Amendment. But without welfare, single-payer health care, a minimum wage of at least $15–all policies she staunchly opposes–many people have to forgo babies they’d really love to have. That’s not really a choice.It seems ill-conceived to have tethered feminism to such a narrow issue as abortion. Yet it makes sense from an insular Beltway fundraising perspective to focus on an issue that makes no demands–the opposite, really–of the oligarch class; this is probably a big reason why EMILY’S List has never dabbled in backing universal pre-K or paid maternity leave; a major reason ‘reproductive choice’ has such a narrow and negative definition in the American political discourse.The thing is, an abortion is by definition a story you want to forget, not repeat and relive. And for the same reason abortion pills will never be the blockbuster moneymakers heartburn medications are, abortion is a consummately foolish thing to attempt to build a political movement around. It happens once or twice in a woman’s lifetime.Kids, on the other hand, are with you forever. A more promising movement–one that goes against everything Hillary Clinton stands for–might take that to heart.
