Conceptual Guerrilla boils the pro-life movement (and several other conservative positions) down to a cynical ploy to guarantee cheap labor:
Cheap-labor conservatives oppose a woman's right to choose. Why. Unwanted children are an economic burden that put poor women "over a barrel", forcing them to work cheap.
I guess he missed Ben's post of Dr. Swingle's letter explaining his opposition to abortion:
When I was in medical school, abortions were done up until 28 weeks (full term is 40 weeks). It was confusing that on one side of the obstetrical unit, pediatricians were placing extremely premature infants on warmers, intubating them to help them breathe, and rushing them off to the NICU, while on the other side similar premature infants/fetuses were being delivered in bedpans and covered with drapes.
As a neonatologist who has cared for numerous spontaneously aborted and a few intentionally aborted fetuses in the past 20 years, I now realize that the difference between a fetus and a premature infant is a social distinction, not a biologic one. If it is wanted, it is a baby; if not wanted, it is a fetus.
I left out the more graphic descriptions of some of the procedures Dr. Swingle had to learn, but you get the idea.
Think Dr. Swingle bases his pro-life position on access to cheap labor? Think again.
Posted by wasylik at August 2, 2003 06:08 PM | TrackBack