Against Abortion Inequality

For this Blog For Choice day, Kay has a good post summarizing what legislation would be desirable. Of the legislative changes, I think that the repeal of the Hyde Amendment would easily be the most important. Because it restricts funding based not on neutral criteria like cost or medical importance but for the sole purpose of obstructing the exercise of a fundamental constitutional right, the Amendment is very constitutionally dubious. But even leaving constitutional issues aside, it’s atrocious public policy. While it’s at least possible to coherently defend an anti-choice position (at least in the abstract; defending laws that might actually be enacted as they actually work is another story), the idea that affluent women should have access to abortion but poor women should not is simply indefensible. Issues of abortion always involve class, and the Hyde Amendment is a particularly stark example.

Admittedly, the repeal of the Hyde Amendment is probably not a viable short-term goal. In the meantime, where possible pro-choicers should 1)try to restore funding in as many states as possible, and 2)work against arbitrary abortion regulations that obstruct access for poor women while producing no benefits whatsoever. As Megan says, “I don’t want loop holes for some, access for some. I don’t want anyone to have the power to decide who gets the right to choose and who doesn’t.”