Willie J. Parker Changed His Mind About Abortion

[yallerdawg]

al.com


Dr. Parker outside Alabama State House, May 2015



Source: The New York Times Magazine, interview by Ana Marie Cox

Your book, “Life’s Work,” is rooted in the fact that you have a moral and spiritual argument in favor of abortion rights, and you talk about your shift from someone who, for religious reasons, didn’t want to provide abortion to someone who, for religious reasons, did. Why did you consider that a “conversion”?

I had to come to a crisis moment regarding a religious understanding that left me unable to help women when I felt deeply for their situation. So I needed to convert from a religious understanding that left me paralyzed to act on my deepest sense of connection to one that empowered me to do what I felt to be the right thing. It felt as life-altering for me to move from being unable to do abortions to being able to do them as it did to move from being a nonbeliever to becoming a believer.

*****

Tell me about the connection between your heritage as a descendant of slaves and the idea that abortion is ultimately about ownership of a body.

People often struggle with why, as a man, I am deeply committed to feminism, reproductive justice and gender equality. I come from a heritage of people who know what it’s like to have your life controlled by somebody else. What’s most proximate to that reality right now is the direct control of women’s bodies and their reproduction, because if you don’t control your reproduction, you don’t control anything else about your life.

*****

Read interview at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/magazine/willie-j-parker-changed-his-mind-about-abortion.html?_r=1

[CrispyQ]

1. Good for him! Nice interview.

I am deeply committed to feminism, reproductive justice and gender equality. I come from a heritage of people who know what it’s like to have your life controlled by somebody else. What’s most proximate to that reality right now is the direct control of women’s bodies and their reproduction, because if you don’t control your reproduction, you don’t control anything

I don't understand why the pro-choice movement doesn't use this argument more.

Forced Labor, Revisited: The Thirteenth Amendment and Abortion
Andrew Koppelman

http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=facultyworkingpapers

snip...

I. The basic argument

The Thirteenth Amendment reads as follows:
1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their
jurisdiction.
2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.

My claim is that the amendment is violated by laws that prohibit abortion. When
women are compelled to carry and bear children, they are subjected to "involuntary
servitude" in violation of the amendment. Abortion prohibitions violate the
Amendment's guarantee of personal liberty, because forced pregnancy and childbirth, by
compelling the woman to serve the fetus, creates "that control by which the personal
service of one man [sic] is disposed of or coerced for another's benefit which is the
essence of involuntary servitude."6

[yallerdawg]

2. There's some eye-opening arguments in your source!

The distinction between wanted and unwanted pregnancy is like the difference between wanted and unwanted sex. Can rape be defended on the grounds that sex is an exhilarating, awe-inspiring, joyous experience? Are arguments that focus on the degrading and violative aspects of rape a libel on sex? Plantation slavery cannot be justified on the grounds that many people find gardening deeply satisfying.

[shenmue]

3. Amen