Abortion rights a measure —
of women’s status — author

By KERRY MCCUAIG a

At the centre of the abortion debate lies
society’s views about female sexuality and
self-determination, says a U.S. political
Scientist and author.

“The state’s interest in abortion is not

pro-natalist,” says Rosalind Petchesky, the
director of Women’s Studies at City Uni-
versity in New York. “It revolves around
controlling women’s sexuality, particularly
the sexuality of young women.”
__ The “teenage question” features strongly
in debates around abortion, says Petchesky,
because people in this age group are being
socialized into the dominant sexual culture.
“Trends over the past ten years indicate
young women, particularly young white
women, are not readily accepting tradi-
tional views of the traditional heterosexual
family.”

Petchesky, in Toronto on the eve of the
National Day of Action on Abortion, Oct.
14, was in that city to give an address on the
law and politics of abortion at the 16th
annual conference of the Law Union of
Ontario.

She is the author of Abortion and Wom-
an’s Choice, The State, Sexuality and
Reproductive Freedom, considered by
many to be a definitive work on the histori-
cal evolution of abortion in western socie-
ties.

“Young women have become visibly self-
assertive about their sexuality,” Petchesky
says during a telephone interview with the
Tribune from her New York office. She
points to empirical changes including trends
toward women marrying later, staying in
school longer and a tendency to put work
ahead of marriage and the family. Most
telling is the rising number of unmarried
women who choose to have and raise child-
ren outside of the traditional family struc-
tures.

“The single mother phenomena is now a
major focus of public policy debate in the
US.,” Petchesky says. Much of the
“expert” discussion in the U.S. and Canada,
however, centres around how to control the
sexuality of young women rather than the
need to provide them with the necessary
tools to make informed decisions about
their lives, or to assist them in the raising of
their children.

Societal hostility to teenaged sexuality is
seen in public opinion polls. Given a list of
circumstances around which abortion
would be justified, support for pregnant
teens is lowest.

The concept central to the pro-choice
movement, of a women’s right to control
over her own body can be traced to the rise
of capitalism when progressive liberals
argued that to be a person, a person must
have control over his or her own body and
mind. The radical edge of this philosophy
resisted the idea of selling one’s body to
another through wage labour.

That control of one’s body remains a
central rallying point for those supporting
women’s equality is found in the rise of
neo-conservatism. An ideological assault
which says women are too irresponsible to
make fundamental decisions about their
own reproduction, also throws into ques-
tion the rights of women in the workforce,
the family and society at large.

Abortion is a useful tool in the neo-
conservative climate, Petchesky suggests.
“When abortion gets this kind of attention
it diverts public alertness from all of the
kinds of social issues and social welfare pol-
icies which were instituted by the state
under previous administrations. The hypoc-
risy of state concern for the welfare of the
fetus is evident when three out of five child-
ren (in the U.S.) have no health care insu-
rance.

“The state is providing precious little to
make child rearing easy, to make it possible
for women to contribute her fertility to the

social good and also develop herself to the .

social good,” the author stresses.

This is part of the reason why the long
time women’s rights activist cannot support
state intervention in women’s reproductive
decisions.

“Any circumstance where intervention
might be warranted would be better
handled through education and social pol-
icy rather than coercion. If the state were to
undertake a public debate on the dangers of
fetal alcoholism or drug abuse; to do public
education around congenital illness, nutri-
tion, reproduction and birth control =
there are many creative solutions which
have yet to be found or tried. Most late term
abortions could be addressed just through
better information and improved access.
Improved health care testing and informa-
tion could make prenatal diagnosis possible
at an earlier date,” she says.

While Petchesky says conservative politi-
cians and courts have chopped away at
abortion access in the U.S. since it was legal-
ized in 1973, she doubts abortions will be
banned.

Since the Supreme Court decision this
summer gave state’s permission to eliminate
funding to publicly run abortion facilities
there has been an upsurge of pro-choice
activity.

“One senses a shift to supporting
women’s abortion access,” Petchesky notes.
“In Florida a similar bill to the Missouri one
has been stalled in committee. Even the
governor who had been spearheading the
legislation has backed down. It’s becoming
too dangerous for politicians. They don’t
want to go out on a limb opposing legal
abortion — the threat of mass mobiliza-
tion and the consequences are too great.”

a

Pro-choice supporters mark anniversary of Supreme Court ruling striking down abortion law, Feb. 4, 1989.

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OTTAWA — Over 30 major organi-
zations met here Oct. 2 to co-ordinate
their campaigns against a new abortion
law.

The conference, called by the National
Action Committee on the Status of
Women, gathered a wide spectrum of
supporters, some never before seen on
the pro-choice front.

The Civil Liberties Association, the
National Organization of Immigrant
and Visible Minority Women and the
Canadian Daycare Advocacy Associa-
tion, in a departure from the past, used
the occasion to state their opposition to a
new abortion law.

Also on the panel was the DisAbled
Women’s Network, a group which had
recently been at odds with choice move-
ment’s support of fetal abnormalities as
grounds for abortion. The choice
movement is opposed to any law which
would re-criminalize abortion.

“The movement for choice on abor-
tion has never been stronger,” NAC

NAC advertisement in Globe's national edition Oct. 12.

Pro-choice position
gains wider support

spokesperson Judy Rebick said at a press
conference marking the meeting. “The
women of this country and our suppor-
ters are not going to permit this govern-
ment to make abortion illegal again.”

Rebick emphasized that abortion is a
health matter and does not belong in the
Criminal Code.

NAC is planning a full-page ad which
will appear in the Globe and Mail, listing
choice supporters from across the coun-
try. The Canadian Abortion Rights
League and the Quebec Coalition for
Free and Accessible Abortion is co-
sponsoring events with local groups in 30
centres on Oct. 14, to mark a National
Day for Choice on Abortion.

Among those at the press conference
were the Business and Professional
Women’s Clubs, Tories for Choice, the
Canadian Labour Congress, Men For
Choice, the Unitarian and United
churches, Federation Des Femmes du
Quebec and the National Council of
Jewish Women.

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Pacific Tribune, October 16, 1989 e 7