Anna Quindlen Quotes
If men got pregnant, there would be safe, reliable methods of birth control. They'd be inexpensive, too.
Anna Quindlen, Columnist, New York Times. Living Out Loud, 1988
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This quotation is a good example of the conflation (confusing) of different issues. West’s is concerned that men are becoming subservient to women. He uses the word “neutering”—men are being behaviorally castrated. There are men who see power as a zero sum game. If one person gains it, someone else must be losing it. Since more and more women are reaching equality and therefore gaining more power over their own and their family life, they reason that somehow the men must be losing their power. In a sense, from the era where men had control of all family money even if earned by the wife, equality has meant less power for men. When men could legally beat (chastise) their wives, they in some sense had more power and some see it as more masculinity. However, most secure men do not feel this way. They do not have to dominate others to feel masculine. Then West refers to Planned Parenthood and Code Pink organizations. The latter is a very left wing women’s’ peace organization that does not deal much with the other issues between men and women. And Planned Parenthood is America’s oldest main line family planning organization. West was talking to a right wing audience and is of that wing himself. They oppose code pink for their war stand; they oppose Planned Parenthood because they support the right of a woman to choose abortion and birth control devices if she wishes. So somehow, peace now, abortion / birth control have been conflated with rights and powers of men and women.
This quote illustrates how ignorant some members of Congress are about basic science and human reproduction. There is absolutely no physiology whereby the trauma of rape can cause a contraceptive effect. Akin was in the midst of a Senate race, and his opponents and the press pilloried him for his ignorance. The previous year there were about 32,000 pregnancies resulting from rape in the United S tates. Worse for Akin, his use of “legitimate rape” got him into trouble with the voters also. His implication that there were some rapes that were NOT legitimate infuriated many voters. He lost the election in a state where the Republicans were predicted to win.
At the time, even with all the barriers that many states placed in the way, over 1 million legal abortions were performed each year.
Anna Marie Quindlen is an American author, journalist, and opinion columnist.
