Still Dreaming of Gilead
by digby
I have often wondered how much the success of feminism, particularly the removal of the stigma of "unwed motherhood" has contributed to the acceptance of anti-choice views. You know, back in the day it was shotgun wedding, hiding out for 9 months and giving your child up for secret adoption or shunning, which made all choices terrible. Loosening up those social structures must have made at least a few people more sympathetic to the idea that abortion is an unnecessary "luxury." Single motherhood is no so common as to be completely unremarkable,thanks to the same feminist revolution that fights for women to be able to make a different choice if they want to. It was all part of the big agenda to finally recognize women's full agency and autonomy.
Unfortunately, the hardcore right wing was always hostile to every part of that agenda and used abortion as one of their rallying points. But really it was about civil rights amd personal freedom --- all of them. And they haven't laid down their arms.
Here's culture warrior Phyllis Schlafly, caught "explaining" that the godless abortion pushing Obama administration is simultaneously encouraging unwed births for political purposes:
Via Michigan Liberal:
"One of the things Obama's been doing is deliberately trying to increase the percentage of our population that is dependent on government...For example, do you know what was the second biggest demographic group that voted for Obama? Obviously the blacks were the biggest demographic, yall know what was the second biggest? Unmarried women. 70% of unmarried women voted for Obama. And this is because when you kick your husband out, you've got to have Big Brother Government to be your provider. And they know that. They've admitted it. And they have all kinds of bills to continue to subsidize illegitimacy, which is now nationwide, running at 41%. 1.7 million babies were born in our country illegitimately last year. The Obama administration wants to continue to subsidize this group because they know they are Democratic votes. Republicans never could have given the amount of money they are going to get. And as Ronald Reagan said, if you subsidize something you are going to get more of it, and if you tax it you're going to get less of it. [Applause]
Robin Marty at RhReality who flagged this, comments:
Remember, these are the people who fight against birth control, and say that there should be no access to abortion. Oddly enough, it doesn't look like they want people to have babies, either.
I actually think they want people to have lots of babies --- good, little (preferably white) conservative babies who are products of patriarchal traditional marriages where women grimly submit themselves to their husbands in all ways. Barring that most desirable choice, women should be required to keep themselves "pure." In other words, they wish to go back to the hypocrisy and repression of the time before the women's movement.
Serena Joy in A Handmaid's Tale was partially based on Schlafly, after all.
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