This is yet another example of how the abortion discussion is always pushed to the graphic extremes. Yes, I think discussing sexual assault victims can be very important,as you do a great job of here. But also, I think rape exceptions and other extreme conditions dominate the abortion legislation discussion and even any abortion discussion (it came up on my blog’s comment section even though it was irrelevant to the original post.)

It’s too bad. I wish we could discuss abortion in a more normal fashion.

For that reason, they’d prefer to push women out of the picture all together, and ignore the fact that even if a fetus was a “person,” that would still make two people whose bodies are facing serious consequences. They prefer this because otherwise, we’d also have to also discuss how women’s bodies are valued.

Anti-choicers claim that a foetus has a greater right to a woman’s body than she has herself. As you say, that is the logic of rape and rape-apology.

It’s also the logic of slavery – and in my view, slaves are entitled to kill in order to be free.

In other words, only some women are seen as worthy of having sexual rights.

And if only some women can have those rights, that establishes those rights as being given (and we know by whom), not innately held by the women concerned. By “letting” a woman have an abortion, the choice is still out of her hands, and ownership over her body is still imposed by another.

This jumped out at me because it fits with what would probably be my PhD dissertation if I ever went back to school to do it. I don’t know if my theory holds up, but here is what I’m thinking: female sexuality is defined by injury.

Physical and/or emotional assault on a developing girl’s sense of wholeness is the foundation for what is then called “female sexuality.” IOW, injury to the self is the sine qua non of female sexuality.

Wow. I can’t believe I’ve been carrying this thesis around for more than 20 years and haven’t really addressed it. There’s so much work do!!!

And why haven’t I done my PhD or in some other way articulated my insights? Because I’ve been busy surviving…