Abortion rights should be based on equality, not privacy

[question everything]

From April 2007

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=217&topic_id=5296

Ginsburg, now the only woman on the court, attempted to re-conceive the foundations of the abortion right, basing it on well-established constitutional principles of equality. Borrowing from her 1985 argument, she said that legal challenges to restrictions on abortion procedures "do not seek to vindicate some generalized notion of privacy; rather, they center on a woman's autonomy to determine her life's course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature."

=====

I was thinking of this argument when I read that California defeated yet another parental notification ballot measure.

As posted here before, if parents cannot raise their children according to their values (hint, hint, Palin) or have not established a trust once their daughters get pregnant, it is not up to the State to enforce such a communication.

And then I thought that some would like to legislate communications between parents and daughters, but not with sons. There are many young boys who impregnate girls, yet, they do not need to tell their parents about such events, unless, of course, the girl chooses to carry the pregnancy to term and name the boy as the father.

I would like to think that any parental notification law that is only about girls should be challenged based on equality.

[HockeyMom]

1. They think a parent won't consent to an abortion

I actually heard this a long time ago from some woman in a Pro Life Organization. She actually said on camera that they have found that notification laws "weren't working" because parents were actually GIVING their daughters permission to have an abortion.

They seriously think if you have fathered or given birth, that you MUST be AntiChoice. Stupid logic, but that is what they think.

[mckara]

2. I Agree!

Abortion opponents care more about making women second-class citizens than fetuses!

[xxqqqzme]

3. All I know is that this damned

'parental notification' better not be on the ballot again in '10. It has been on the last 3 general election ballots and defeated by over 50% each time. I'm getting tired of rabid, religious, rong wing money stuffing the ballot w/ their ideology.

[SoCalDemocrat]

4. Weak argument

Stick with privacy.

[RC]

5. It is a medical decision between a woman and her doctor.

Because it involves the health of the woman, it cannot and should not be a political or religious football.
Don't like abortions? Don't get any. Stay out of the medical treatment of women who you most likely do not know.