Thank you, thank you, thank you! Carl Brooks’ article “The Slavery of Motherhood” is a thoughtful and comprehensive look at the newest attack on privacy and abortion rights. The issues are so surrounded by, as he calls it, “sophistry or errors” that a factual discussion of what is really at stake here is nearly impossible. Many of my (liberal and feminist) friends have responded to the UVVA with comments like “But if the mother wanted to keep the baby, or hadn’t decided yet, it should be an additional crime.” This type of response, unfortunately common, avoids the very essence of the bill – to take away those rights from the mother and give them to a fetus. If a woman is the victim of a violent attack that results in the loss of a pregnancy that she wanted to keep, the criminal should be punished – for violating the woman’s rights. But people need to realize that under the guise of further protection, what is happening is women’s rights to privacy over their bodies and lives is being stripped away. Thank you for running this article – hopefully people will begin to understand the impact of this.

Erica MenaChair, SEOCUndergraduate Student Senate