Daily Dose: 189

Feminism in 3D: Defy, Disobey, Disrupt

Logo: Sheyam Ghieth

“Exploring the differences between privacy and secrecy in the context of abortion is a way of understanding why, in general, women are hesitant to talk about and eager to distance themselves from the subject. People are generally better off—freer, more in charge, more autonomous—when they control who knows what personal information about them. My argument is that secrecy rather than privacy is often the more accurate characterization of the concealment that surrounds abortion … The distinction between privacy and secrecy has implications not only for individual women but also with regard to abortion talk, or how abortion is discussed at more public and political levels. The absence of private discussion distorts the nature of public debate, which in turn distorts the political discourse that informs legislative processes. Because people approach the public abortion debate on the basis of what they have been exposed to and have talked about, we cannot entirely sever private discussion from public politics. Consider how the dynamics of the same-sex marriage debate changed as people—elected representatives and their constituents—learned that their own children were gay. Not only did the guest list for family holiday meals expand as some of the regulars began to bring (or to reveal) their special guest as a partner, but within two generations the law recognized these partners as legal spouses,” Carol Sanger, About Abortion: Terminating Pregnancy in Twenty-First-Century America