Readers Blog: Narrow-minded to attack those who support rights of unborn
I don’t know what percentage of women in Ireland agree with me, but I believe I represent the views of a considerable number who find Ms. Harrington’s views narrow-minded in the extreme.
I say this because of her sheer inability to see the full picture of what pregnancy involves, and her consistent dehumanisation of life in the womb.
Like Suzanne Harrington, I am a mother, and I have seen the ultrasound images of my children. Like everybody else, they had small but complex beginnings.
In time I saw their bodies, bodies within my body, or bodies attached to my body, but bodies nonetheless.
And bodies, even if small, have a right, even with qualification, to bodily autonomy.
As a woman, a mother, and an opponent of abortion, I view the deliberate destruction of unborn life that lacks the capacity to object to its own destruction, as a violation of that unborn child’s bodily autonomy.
I feel sure Ms Harrington would have no problem condemning the man who engages in sexual activity with a woman who lacks the capacity to object to his advances, and where the lack of objection is then claimed as positive consent.
If choice is involved in that situation, it most certainly isn’t the choice of the vulnerable female. However, like abortion, the choice is made by the person who is powerful enough to make it.
Might isn’t always right, and a recognition that your unborn children have rights is a reflection of the reality and significance of life in a progressive society.
The feeling is probably mutual, but I believe Suzanne Harrington’s views on female autonomy in Ireland to be seriously distorted.
She can’t acknowledge the fact that reproductive rights may actually involve more rights than those of women, or the fact that considerable opposition to her views comes from women themselves.
With all due respect to her, I feel she needs to broaden her horizons on the issue rather than promoting the power of women against their own unborn babies.
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