In I work at an abortion clinic and know that access to abortion is difficult, even in New Jersey, New Jersey Star-Ledger Guest Columnist Jasmine Winters writes on the difficulty some women have accessing abortion in NJ despite state laws guaranteeing that right. Some women don’t live close to abortion providers, so must travel to get to one, sometimes as far as 100 miles. This is a financial hardship for some, and one can sympathize with their difficulties.
Winters also focuses on anti-abortion activists’ intimidation tactics. Patients at clinics often are
forced to deal with anti-abortion protestors who harass them and try to block their entrance to the clinic. It’s a common misconception that these protestors are silent and unobtrusive, or speak to patients with compassion and in good faith. The reality is that anti-abortion extremists are acting as vigilantes to try to take away patients’ rights to access care in a safe environment.
Again, one can sympathize with the staff and patients of these clinics who must deal with these bullies. Such tactics are not free speech or legitimate protests. They are harassment and thuggery.
Then came this bait-and-switch that undercuts Winters whole article:
And people who don’t have insurance should be able to rely on state funding — we have enough for everyone in our community. We should also protect our state’s providers as well as patients who come from out of state from being sued, extradited, subpoenaed, or criminalized in any way by states with cruel abortion bans.
[my emphasis]
Once Winters pivoted from the right to access abortion to the “right” to access other peoples’ wallets in order to pay for that access, she exposes herself as no better than the “extremists” she condemns for wanting to physically intimidate and block women from entering abortion clinics. She calls for forcing taxpayers to pay for abortions, which is also an act of a bully, which is made worse under cover of law, which is legalized aggressive force.
“My body, my choice” necessarily includes “my money, my choice.” Life is an integration of body and mind, the spiritual and the material. A person must work to earn the money needed to access the goods and services one’s life requires. It follows that a person must be free to make the necessary choices regarding the buying of these values. When Winters says women “should be able to rely on state funding,” she is saying the taxpayers who fund the state (or rate-payers who fund health insurance) should be denied their own choice on how they spend their own money.
One can sympathize with people who have trouble affording abortion or any other good or service. But that doesn’t justify what amounts to legalized theft. Money belongs first and foremost to the individuals who earned it—not to the “community”; not to the state; not to abortion clinic workers; not to the pro-abortion rights faction; and not to Jasmine Winters. But to the individuals who earn it in the first place. And only those individuals have the right to decide how they spend their money, including whether to pay for another person’s abortion (or any other material value)*. When Winters asserts “we have enough for everyone in our community,” she is arrogantly claiming to speak for everyone. But she has only the moral right to speak for herself and her own money, not everyone else and their money.
As a strong supporter of reproductive freedom, including abortion rights, it disturbs me tremendously when people like Winters equate the right to abortion with the right to force other people to pay for their abortion. Such package dealing undercuts and destroys the argument for abortion rights. You cannot defend one right by violating another right. There is no “right” to violate the rights of others. Your body and your money are both equally your property, and only the individual has a right to decide what to do with her body and her money.
* [As this sentence implies, I am against the entire redistributive welfare state. So I am fully consistent.]
Related Reading:
The Self-Defeating Disingenuousness of Abortion ‘Rights’ Supporters
NJ Governor Murphy’s Immoral Scheme to Violate Rights Under the Guise of Abortion Rights
Right to Abortion vs. the "Right" to Abortion Services
Defending Reproductive Rights Depends Upon Upholding All Rights
Gorsuch, Legal Abortion, and ‘Access’
No comments:
Post a Comment