There is a twisted kind of consistency in how Alabama goes about regulating women’s bodies:
Alabama is one of two states with no statute terminating parental rights for a person found to have conceived the child by rape or incest, a fact that has gained fresh relevance since its lawmakers adopted the nation’s strictest abortion ban in May. That statute even outlaws the procedure for victims of sexual assault and jails doctors who perform it, except in cases of serious risk to the woman’s health.
While the Alabama abortion law has been challenged in court, abortion rights activists fear it couldreduce access to the procedure, forcing rape victims to bear children and co-parent with their attackers.
First, it doesn’t matter how a women became pregnant nor does it matter at all if she is all prepared, physically, financially, or psychologically, to endure a pregnancy. If she finds herself “with child,” then it’s her obligation to bring that embryo to term.
Second, while a man can be punished for impregnating a woman against her will, he is in at least some sense entitled to do so. Once he’s successful, the woman cannot interrupt the process and she cannot treat the man any differently than she’d treat an estranged father from a consensual relationship. In other words, if you want a particular woman to have your child, you can just go ahead and make it happen. Once you get out of jail (assuming you’re even convicted), you can have visitation rights.
This means that any man who is willing to pay the price can get whatever genes he wants to pair with his own.
Alabama women really can’t say no.
