Opaque Lucidity

Where's NOW Now?

You probably know by now that the 11th Circuit Court appeal for Terri Shiavo was turned down today. There is another legal step involving the Supreme Court, but I'm not a lawyer so I won't delve into it here. Hugh Hewitt has an excellent post on the matter.

A caller to Bill Bennett's show yesterday raised an interesting question: why have we not heard from any feminist organization with regard to the Schiavo case? Unless I missed it (which is, admittedly, very possible), no one from NOW has hosted a press conference to say yay or nay on the issue.

One could conclude from this, possibly, that these groups wish to stay above the fray. But when have they been silent in the past on any issue involving a woman or women? No, I think the answer lies elsewhere. Stepping back from what is a heart-rending situation, let's look at the facts of this case:

1. A woman was being fed via a feeding tube. According to some, she is brain-dead; according to others, she isn't and only needs physical therapy in order to leave a fuller life than the one she has now.

2. Her "husband", who is her legal guardian, claims he knows what's best for his wife and that he is only following her own request to "not be allowed to live like this."

3. The woman's parents and family are willing to care for the woman for the rest of her natural life, if only her "husband" will sign over his legal guardianship.

4. The courts side with the husband because, legally, he has the right to make life and death decisions for a woman who can not, in her current condition, make them for herself.

With these facts in mind, let's take a look at abortion.

1. A pre-born baby is completely dependent upon her mother for everything: nutrition, life support, etc. until very late in the pregnancy. Some argue that life begins as conception; others claim that life doesn't really begin until the child can make it on her own outside her mother's womb.

2. A pre-born baby's mother has legal guardianship of her baby during her pregnancy. Some mothers have abortions because of economic conditions, drug dependency, or a lack of a stick-around sperm donor. They don't want their child to "live like that."

3. Millions of couples who can not have children wait for years to adopt babies in the United States. Many of them go to places like China to adopt because there are so few babies placed for adoption here. Yet, abortion kills over a million pre-born babies in this country every year. Almost all of them could be adopted, if only their mothers cared enough to give them life.

4. The Supreme Court decided in 1973 that a woman has a right to have an abortion; in other words, she was given the right to make decisions for someone who, in their present condition, can not.

Now it becomes clear. Feminists groups must remain silent because if they speak in favor of starving Terri Schiavo to death, they may appear to be in favor of a man being able to make life and death decisions for women (you know, the whole slippery slope thing). If they come out against Schiavo's "husband", then they would logically have to re-examine 30 years of arguments for abortion.

Either way, they might just wink out of existence. And wouldn't that be a shame?

Posted by Matthew at March 23, 2005 05:14 PM