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THIS WEEK’S TIDBITS
Posted by Laura on May 15, 2010
Tags: Blogs, Links, Reproductive Rights, Women
Firstly some attention aimed at the blog Penny Red by Laurie Penny, which provides a intelligent, questioning, and often witty, outlook on societal ongoings. I’ve become increasingly addicted to the blog and in the last few weeks have nothing but praise for the pieces in response to the recent election which have really been hitting the nail on the head. Self-described as a ‘A socialist, feminist, deviant, reprobate, queer, journalist, aspiring author, freelance copywriter and sometime blogger’ Laurie Penny has completely won my heart and if you haven’t already been enjoying her regular blogging over at Penny Red, I strongly advise you bookmark it in your favorites this very second.
Secondly, listening to my daily commute podcasts, I came across a recent Woman’s Hour this week which was looking at the sterilization of drug addicts in America and the suggestion this is on its way to the UK. The organisation responsible pay $300 to female drug addicts to be sterilized, grounded in the belief that we must protect the innocent children who are born from drug addicts with various psychological and physical problems. I slap my wrists for not remembering the spokeswoman involved the discussion but I was really disturbed by the ideas informing such a process. Much of the defence revolved firstly around the need to protect the potential offspring but they were also arguing that it would be so good if the money was used for positive purposes and the fact that the women in question were volunteers. My criticism of such an argument is this – can we class women addicted to and under the influence of drugs as ‘volunteers’? And if the money is merely used for more drugs, which the organisation openly acknowledged, then what is the real reasons behind such a process? As the spokesperson for a UK drug addiction support charity said during the discussion, is this not then just taking care of ‘undesirables’ – is it not similar to the sterilization under the Nazi regime?
There’s more on this topic over at Comment is Free and BBC News. What are your thoughts?
Tags for this post:Blogs, Links, Reproductive Rights, Women