Considering Social Policy on Abortion: Respecting Women as Moral Agents

Every year in the US, 6.4 million women get pregnant. Half of these pregnancies are unintended, and almost half of these end in abortion. Abortion, while highly contested in contemporary political rhetoric in the US, is statistically safer than childbirth, and it is one of the most commonly performe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of feminist studies in religion 2014-03, Vol.30 (1), p.129-138
Main Author: Peters, Rebecca Todd
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abortion
after Thirty Years
Child rearing
Demographic aspects
Feminism
Fetus
Harrison, Beverly Wildung
Medical procedures
Moral agency
Morality
Political aspects
Politics
Pregnancy
Public policy
Rhetoric
Social policy
Ultrasonography
Violence against women
Women
Womens health
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Summary:Every year in the US, 6.4 million women get pregnant. Half of these pregnancies are unintended, and almost half of these end in abortion. Abortion, while highly contested in contemporary political rhetoric in the US, is statistically safer than childbirth, and it is one of the most commonly performed medical procedures in the country. The thesis of Beverly Wildung Harrison's 1983 book, Our Right to Choose, was that women's capacity to control their own reproductive destiny is a broadbased social good that women require. In developing her argument, Harrison discussed the moral significance of the state recognizing women's capacity to act as "rational moral agents" in the same way that the state affords this legal and moral right to men. To this end, Peters examines the extent to which the principle of respecting women's moral agency does or ought to serve as the foundation for public policy on abortion.
ISSN:8755-4178
1553-3913
DOI:10.2979/jfemistudreli.30.1.129