It’s a rare pro-lifer who is against the death penalty, who’s against all war, who favors, you know, all the things people need to flourish and stay healthy in life. They’ve tied themselves to the Republican Party, which doesn’t support any of that. Katha Pollitt Read Quote
We have an idea that the man should help pay for the child. But we don’t have a law that says a man has to support any woman he gets pregnant. Why is that? Because she doesn’t have the baby yet. But if we’re going to say it’s a human being, then he should be supporting her during pregnancy. Katha Pollitt Read Quote
I think there are a very few pro-lifers who would say that a zygote in a petri dish is the equivalent of you or me; it’s just younger. If you can say that without laughing, maybe you are a true pro-lifer. But I think most people are able or willing to make distinctions that show they maybe don’t quite believe that. Katha Pollitt Read Quote
Women who give up their children for adoption are years and years later talking about how painful it was, much more than women who have abortions. Katha Pollitt Read Quote
In the end, abortion is an issue of fundamental human rights. To force women to undergo pregnancy and childbirth against their will is to deprive them of the right to make basic decisions about their lives and well-being, and to give that power to the state. Katha Pollitt Read Quote
There is a huge reservoir of support for abortion rights from ordinary women. I hear all the time from women who had abortions and say it made possible the good life they went on to have. Social shaming silences too many. Katha Pollitt Read Quote
Opposition to abortion was one of the ways the Christian right was brought into the Republican Party by conservatives hoping to move the party further right. Now, of course, the tail is wagging the dog. Katha Pollitt Read Quote
Planned Parenthood is a pretty popular organization. Way more popular than Congress! It claims that one in five women have received care from one of its clinics. And this care, despite what abortion opponents say, is excellent and not easily replaceable by ‘community health centers.’ Texas tried it, and thousands of women went without care. Katha Pollitt Read Quote
The notion that female initiative is useless because men know what they want is particularly odd – most people don’t even know what they want for dinner. Katha Pollitt Read Quote
Sure, men like a challenge – but so do women. And nobody likes to be challenged all the time. I know plenty of long-standing happy couples who slept together right away, spent hours yakking on the phone, split checks down the middle, and lived together for years before the wedding. Katha Pollitt Read Quote
