Celebrity Woman in Morocco Arrested for Having an Abortion
A well known journalist was arrested outside her doctor's office, along with her doctor and his secretary, accused of having an abortion. They have denied this happened and that records were altered.
This arrest took place in a Muslim country. It is amusing how often I am chastised for not criticizing Islam--that I criticize Christianity. Here we see little difference between Islam and Christianity. Both want a strong government that inserts itself into the personal decisions of individuals. We have seen local authorities in the U.S. arrest women for having abortions. One need only visit the website of an organization set up exclusively to protect women from persecution, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, to see how often women are charged with having an abortion.
The difference between a miscarriage and abortion in anti abortion law has never been made clear. This allows anti abortion politics to apply wherever and whenever it dislikes some particular woman.
Abortion is illegal in Morocco. Nevertheless, some 500 abortions are performed each day. There are only about 75 prosecutions a year. It is easy to suspect, then, that officials were doing surveilance on the celebrity who was arrested.
The experience of Morocco, where 500 abortions are performed each day but only 75 are prosecuted each year, is quite common. In South and Central America, studied by Mechelle Obersman ("Her Body, Our Laws") there are countries where abortions are a crime. Yet, abortions are easy to obtain and the numbers are equal to Morocco. In those countries, officials go after the low hanging fruit. They size up the very few women they want to prosecute. Poor women of color often have no lawyer so putting then in jail costs less. Officials avoid prosecuting women who can put up a fight for their rights.
When it comes to corrupt politics, anti abortion is at the top of the list. It's goal is Big Brother looking over the shoulder of every citizen and taking political revenge on those least able to fight back.
This case and the reporting of it are not replete with many facts. Here are the facts as I have read stories. The country has a law against abortion and against premarital sex. Jon's numbers of suspected abortions and recorded prosecutions are mostly accurate. She claims no abortion took place. No article I found stated that she denied having sex. She claims her and her fiance were married in a religious ceremony but not a secular ceremony. A secular ceremony with its ensuing marriage license is required in Morocco, and she acknowledges they are only now planning on the secular ceremony, having had the religious ceremony.
ReplyDeleteThe whole claim that she was targeted because she was a reporter/writer of articles critical of the government is unprovable unless she can find proof. RIght now, she making that unsubstantiated claim. The fact that she was treated by this doctor and both she and her fiance paid a portion of the emergency medical bill is somewhat telling. Why was this an emergency? Why did 2 people have to contribute to the procedure? If it wasn't abortion, what was it?
The police state the doctor and the clinic were both under observation for a while for claims of abortion. This woman seems to have gotten caught up in the police operation when the police decided to go for the arrest.
There is no proof of Jon's claims of poor women 'of color' being targeted more frequently for arrest and prosecution.
About the only facts in this case are (1) abortion is illegal, (2) premarital sex is illegal, (3) a woman, her fiance, a doctor and some other medical staff are standing trial currently, (4) she claims to be targeted because her writing as an independent journalist has been critical of the government, (5) she and her fiance paid for whatever was done, (6) some medical procedure was done on an emergency basis, (7) she claims the medical records seized were falsified to state she had an abortion. Oh, and this has nothing to do with "corrupt politics", "big brother" or any identity politics.
Matt "There is no proof of Jon's claim poor women 'of color' being targeted more frequently for arrest and prosecution." It would be more accurate for you to say, "I don't know anything about this." There are a lot of statistics from countries where abortion is illegal that plot the locations and class of women who are prosecuted for having abortions. Since anti abortion is your passion, you should material about abortion enforcement. I'd suggest "Her Body, Our Laws: on the Front Lines of the Abortion War from El Salvador to Oklahoma. " This is not a pro choice book but one that simple tries to discover what goes on at ground level when there are laws or interpretation of laws against abortion. In the end, anti abortion enforcement is driven by the budgets provided for enforcement. There are so many abortions they cannot all be prosecuted. In fact only a tiny share can be prosecuted. So, it you were managing anti abortion enforcement you would do what current managers do, prosecute the easiest ones out there. These are poor women in rural areas. The rest of the society goes on unafraid of prosecution.
ReplyDeleteThe proven facts, see George Grant, "Grand Illusions", are that Planned Parenthood targets Black and Hispanic women. The Planned Parenthood abortion centers are predominantly in minority neighborhoods. This is in keeping with the racist Margaret Sanger and her desire to "weed out the unwanted" in our society. This fact is evidenced by her own books, e.g. "Woman and the New Race", which is replete with demographic targeting of people she found to be "useless eaters".
DeleteMatt "The Planned Parenthood abortion centers are predominantly in minority neighborhoods." The anti abortion explanation of why they are often located in poor neighborhoods is to reduce the population of blank and Hispanic people. The real explanation is economics. Those locations are cheaper places to do business and helps keep down the price of abortions. Second, low income people have more difficulty financing children so abortions help them deal successfully with unplanned pregnancies. Anti abortion advocates could offset the economic obstacles to having children by financially supporting pregnant women. Perhaps they know they would be supporting women of color and they want no part of that--even though it would prevent thousands of abortions.
DeleteSorry, Jon, but Margaret Sanger was a racist, ran a racist organization and the racism continues to this day. Blacks are aborted at a much higher rate than whites at Planned Parenthood.
DeleteNorth Dakota is a pretty low cost place but there is no Planned Parenthood abortion center in North Dakota. But check out all the abortion centers Planned Parenthood runs in a 50 mile radius of Times Square. Then cross-reference that with Black neighborhoods. This is an 'inconvenient truth' for you to face.
"Blacks are aborted at a much higher rate than whites....check our the abortion centers...in a 50 mile radius of Times Square."
ReplyDeleteYou are a great ability to take an obvious cause and effect relationship and get it wrong. Abortion centers are capitalism in medicine. They go where the demand is. Do you think McDonalds picks out a location based on where they THINK people should eat McDonalds? Poor neighborhoods, which are unfortunately often black/Hispanic neighborhoods, are were there is a lot of demand for abortions because women cannot afford to raise children.