In this transition the line between the two kinds of pro-choice arguments was blurrier than today’s progressives like to acknowledge. And in any other area of policy Thomas’s point about how legal abortion appears, in the aggregate, to act in racist and eugenic ways would be taken as an indicator that something more than just emancipation is at work. In theory the high abortion rate in black America is just the result of countless individual decisions. In practice the medical system strongly encourages abortion in response to disability, with predictable results. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTOpinion) and Instagram, join the Facebook political discussion group, Voting While Female.

Source: New York Times June 01, 2019 18:45 UTC