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Path: utzoo!watmath!saquigley
From: saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley, Univ. of Waterloo)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: punishment & abortion (cont.) (moral)
Message-ID: <7061@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 1-Mar-84 14:01:17 EST
Article-I.D.: watmath.7061
Posted: Thu Mar  1 14:01:17 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 2-Mar-84 12:31:17 EST
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 168

     In this section, I will refer  to  "punitive-pregnancy"
groups  as  groups who are advocating using forced pregnancy
as a punishment for people who have not "behaved"  properly.
People  of such beliefs are to be found both in the pro-life
and pro-choice groups.

_0._1.  _T_h_e _c_r_i_m_e

     Even though in most people's minds the crime  is  quite
clear:  lack  of a responsible attitude while having sex, it
is not very easily defined, and the definition  varies  from
person  to  person,  as the responses to my questions showed
(which I didn't post, but I can  tell  you  that  they  were
varied). Basically it seems that each person has her/his own
definition  of  "sexual  responsibility",  and  some  people
believe that they should impose their view of responsability
on other people.  There is nothing new  about  this,  except
that the means used in this case are very debatable.  I will
talk a bit more about responsability later on, but  for  the
purpose  of  the  present chapter, I can safely (I hope) say
that the crime in question here is "having the  wrong  atti-
tude about sex and parenthood".

_0._2.  _T_h_e _c_r_i_m_i_n_a_l_s

     The criminals can be defined as  "the  people  who  are
guilty of the crime and who will be punished if caught".  In
most cases - except when one of the sexual partners lied  to
the  other  about  their  use  of birth control or attitudes
about parenthood - the people who are guilty  of  the  crime
are  both  sexual partners, yet of the two, the woman is the
one who is punished the most severely if  the  pregnancy  is
not  allowed to be terminated.  If the child is given up for
adoption, she will be punished physically by being foced  to
stay pregnant against her will.  The father will not be pun-
ished.  If the child is not given up for adoption, not  only
will  she  be punished during her pregnancy, but she will be
punished afterwards for the next 20 years or so, taking care
of a child she did not want.  The father will be punished in
the sense that he will have  to  support  the  child  finan-
cially,  but  this is the only legal punishment reserved for
him.

     Notice that I am not talking about the  actual  punish-
ments,  as some fathers might decide to marry their lover to
provide a home for the child, or might decide to  share  the
mother's  punishment  by  taking an active role in the preg-
nancy, childbirth and care of the child, but  I  am  talking
about the "legal" punishments: except for the financial sup-
port of the child, the father is not punished by the law for
his crime; as any parent knows, financial support is useful,
but is nothing compared  with  all  the  rest  of  the  work
involved  in  bringing up children.  Therefore the punitive-
pregnancy legal systems to date have been  very  anti-women,
punishing  only mainly the woman of the guilty couple.  This
is not to say that  an  equitable  (in  a  sense)  punitive-
pregnancy  legal  system  could  not be devised whereby both
partners could be as much as possible equally punished,  but
simply that no such system has existed yet to the best of my
knowledge, and that groups  concerned  about  punishment  of
this  specific  crime  have not been too concerned about the
equitability of  their  punishment  system,  justifying  the
feminist   accusations  of  rampant  women-hating  in  these
groups.

     Turning my attention to the  selection  of  the  guilty
couple.   It  is  interesting  to note that the only couples
being punished for their crimes are those where  the  mother
actually  becomes pregnant.  If society is interested in the
punishment of this particular crime, it  should,  if  it  is
equitable, also punish those who are found by other means to
have commited the crime, and the punishment  should  be  the
same  as  the  one  for those who get pregnant: forced preg-
nancy.  Yet, the mere suggestion of  such  a  punishment  is
revolting  to  most for many different reasons most of which
could be used as pro-choice arguments.  I will not list them
here  as  I will (or have already) mentioned these arguments
somewhere along the way in this monologue (if  I  am  wrong,
please correct me).

     Again this is not to say that it would be impossible to
devise a punitive-pregnancy system whereby all guilty people
could be punished whether or not they get pregnant, but sim-
ply  that such a system is not being seriously considered by
people interested in punitive-pregnancy systems.  This could
mean a few things:

1    that punishment of this crime is not worth  setting  up
     such  a system, in which case, why set up the system in
     the first place if not to make a few people  suffer  or
     to use those people for deterrence purposes?

2    That the punishment system is just an excuse for  some-
     thing  else, in which case, why not be honest and state
     the real purpose?   maybe  there  are  better  ways  of
     obtaining what is wanted.

3    That only pregnant women are sufficiently guilty to  be
     punished.   The  only difference between them and other
     women who commited the same crime, is their  fertility,
     something  they  probably  have  no control over.  This
     would also justify some  feminist  claims  of  complete
     disrespect for women's fertility by society.

_0._3.  _T_h_e _p_o_l_i_c_e

     As only  pregnant  women  are  punished  under  current
punitive-pregnancy  systems,  the policing for this crime is
be very easily done.  The women's own bodies  take  care  of
it.   This implies, that women who do not whish to have many
children will consider their own  bodies  and  fertility  as
alien  to  themselves, waiting to catch them doing something
wrong.  This paranoid schizophrenic attitude about their own
bodies  is  already  quite  common  among women who practise
birth control, as birth control is  a  power  fight  between
women's  will and their bodies.  The methods used to silence
the body are more or less forceful and harmful but they  are
antagonistic,  and  create a mistrust of their own bodies by
women. Using their own fertility as a  watchdog  over  women
will  only reinforce this antagonism.  The result will often
be self-hate and a feeling of being  trapped  by  one's  own
anatomy,  something  we  are barely starting to come out of,
thank god.

     This self-hate is a  very  powerful  tool  for  anybody
interested in the subjugation of women, this is why it is so
important to really look very closely  at  our  motives  for
proposing  such  a punitive-pregnancy system.  If the system
is not completely equitable, then one has reasons to  wonder
whether  it  is not simply an excuse to hit a specific group
people.

     (.....  to be continued ........)

                        Sophie Quigley
                        ..!watmath!saquigley





























                       March 1, 1984