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Thursday, July 09, 2009

Ginsburg: I Thought Roe Was To Rid Undesirables


Justice discusses 'growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of'

In an astonishing admission, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she was under the impression that legalizing abortion with the 1973 Roe. v. Wade case would eliminate undesirable members of the populace, or as she put it "populations that we don't want to have too many of."


Her remarks, set to be published in the New York Times Magazine this Sunday but viewable online now, came in an in-depth interview with Emily Bazelon titled, "The Place of Women on the Court."


The 16-year veteran of the high court was asked if she were a lawyer again, what would she "want to accomplish as a future feminist legal agenda."


Ginsburg responded:
Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that had changed their abortion laws before Roe [to make abortion legal] are not going to change back. So we have a policy that affects only poor women, and it can never be otherwise, and I don't know why this hasn't been said more often.


Question: Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid for abortions for poor women?


Ginsburg: Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae – in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn't really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong.


GO HERE to read more.

8 comments:

Moon Willow said...

Fascinating post, Joe. (I clicked on all the links, and really want to read that book.) Much food for thought. I will be pondering for a while. Thank you.

That being said, I think I know what kinds of comments will be submitted to this thread. It ain't gonna be pretty.

Anonymous said...

how exactly did skeletor make it onto the supreme court? It looks like someone tried to abort her 60 some odd years ago... im jus sayn.

Anonymous said...

Spoken like a true liberal moron!
Ginsberg is an idiot!

Anonymous said...

More of the Liberal mind set revealed.

Anonymous said...

Imagine that. A judge who has an agenda to reduce the "growth of populations that we don't want to have too many of" instead of sticking to protecting the constitution.

I am still fascinated that the Supreme Court has done anything beyond saying a state can't restrict a person's ability to go to another state to get an abortion (Interstate Commerce Clause). Where in the Constitution does it say anything about abortion? Powers not specifically granted to the federal government shall reside in the states.

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of Bill Duvall

Anonymous said...

I am surprised that many people do not realize the United Nations Health Organization has a public policy that the world would be better off if 80% of us were gone. The belief is that the rich who would remain would enjoy the lush earth's natural resources in a non-depleting manner. There is a New Age movement to regard the earth itself as a goddess. We should give it person-hood, just as corporations have enjoyed in America since the 1940's.

Anonymous said...

she's "skeletor" because of chemo for pancreatic cancer, though she's never been very big.
she's FAR from being an idiot, just WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAy left... as most on the supreme bench will be should something happen to her. watch out for Hillary. she'll be there soon if this pres. remains in office.
the r v w decision was one
they" pulled from waaaaaaaaaaay out on the far reaches of Constitutional interpretation & it included a number of "if"'s.