Good points, Tracy. Notice how we are debating the meaning and connotation of
words. What does it mean to "regulate"? If the government passed a law that
said women would not be allowed to give birth after age 40, that would be a law
regulating reproduction, would it not? [Of course, I probably should expect
that you won't agree. But for right now, I will assume you agree.] But instead
of that law or regulation, the legislature enacted a law that said women must
pay half of their incomes as taxes after they reach the age of 40. Would that
be a law that regulated reproduction (in some sense of the meaning of regulate)?
It would affect the decisions that some women would make about getting pregnant,
would it not? Would it be considered an indirect way of regulating
reproduction? When the government promises to pay a regular sum of money to
women below a certain level of wealth if they have children out of wedlock (or
even in wedlock), does that law (to pay the money etc.)
constitute a form of regulation of reproduction? Does it encourage women to
have babies? [Regulate - to bring under the control of law or constituted
authority, to bring order, method or uniformity to (something), to fix or adjust
the time, amount, degree, or rate of].

If regulate is not the right word, then maybe "manage" would be a better word.
Should the government "manage" the reproductivity of the people?
When I ask if governments are going to pay more attention to controlling and
regulating reproduction, I am asking whether the government can tell a woman she
may or may not get pregnant and if she does, whether she be allowed to give
birth to the child or whether the government will intervene and abort the child.
Does a woman have an absolute right to become pregnant? Can society say to a
woman: if you become pregnant, your pregnancy will be aborted? If society can
put a woman into an evironment, e.g. a prison, where getting pregnant is not
easy, can society tell the woman who is not in the prison that she may not get
pregnant? As for women in prisons, they apparently occasionally fornicate with
men (against the rules) and become pregnant. And, of course, there is the issue
of conjugal visits. Some prisons provide private areas where prisoners can meet
with spouses and fornicate if they want to. Can the directors of prisons say to
a woman who is allowed conjugal visits, if she
gets pregnant, she will not be allowed to carry a child to birth if she becomes
pregnant?



"Tracy B. Harms" <t_b_harms@...> wrote:
Charles Howard wrote:

> ...
>
> I think the time has probably come when the regulation of
> reproduction needs to be an issue of talk and debate. For
> example, I don't think a woman has been imprisoned should
> be entitled to become pregnant while she is in prison.
> Would you care to respond to that example?
>

I do see now that I cannot simply preclude "regulation of
reproduction" in the manner I previously suggested. As for this
example, however, I don't think it will fit the topic you proposed.

No woman is entitled to become pregnant, period. Now, as for the
fact that women do have the right to attempt to become pregnant,
through cooperation with those who might impregnate her, this right
would naturally be denied as a side-effect of the denial of freedom
of movement and association that typically comes with imprisonment.
When a woman is precluded from becoming pregant because she is
imprisoned, this isn't a matter of "regulating reproduction" any
more than incidentally preventing her from making pilgrimage to
Mecca would be rightly called regulating religion.


Tracy Harms




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