Abortion Controversy: Novak on ‘Woman’s Right to Choose’

Novak takes issue with Erica Jong and contends that abortion is not about political power, but about “feminist political power.” In that “march,” he says, “the bodies of infants in the womb were the first to be marched on.” Of course, he’s right in a sense; if women never spoke up, there wouldn’t be an issue, and men could continue to do precisely what was convenient for them.

Novak’s image of women freely sacrificing our unborn babies in a militant gesture as a price to pay in our quest for equal rights provides the first clue that the real issue for him is not so much the rights of the unborn fetus as the fact that women now have a voice in the discussion. When he starts writing articles advocating the rights of the fetus in other areas of the political arena, separate from issues of feminism, I suppose I’ll trust his motives a little more.

KATE McFADDEN

Glendora