Sunday, February 15, 2009

Meet Jane Roe

I may be a month late to this party, but at first I dismissed it as an insignificant piece of bizarro non-news, the opposite of a human interest story. More of a human freakshow.

A single mother of six, undergoes in vitro and has octuplets. The public reaction ran the gamut, the full spectrum of human emotions.

At least the range between outrage and disgust.

In the wake of this story there have been editorials, investigations, calls to regulate the fertility industry, and now death threats. The criticism seems to be universal - left and right; religious and secular; feminist and chauvinist.

Then a thought occurred to me - why is any of this our business? If, as the left claims, that the abortion debate is really about "choice," then shouldn't we celebrate this woman's choices? Isn't this the ultimate expression of Roe? If there were calls to regulate abortions clinics en masse following a single doc's display of poor ethical judgment, wouldn't NARAL be up in arms? "Get your laws off my body!" and all that?

This woman exercised her choice, and is being villified for it. The hypocrisy is stunning.