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  • Title: [The ideology of the common good and legislative issues concerning abortion].
    Author: Marques Pereira B.
    Journal: Rev Inst Sociol; 1984; (1-2):239-56. PubMed ID: 12313959.
    Abstract:
    This work examines the ideology of the general interest as it is expressed in 2 opposing legislative proposals regarding abortion put forth in Belgium in the early 1980s. The Flemish Liberal proposal deposed in the Senate by Lucienne Herman-Michielsens represents a possible compromise for the Social Christians because it would retain the principle of penal prohibition of all abortions except those considered therapeutic, while the proposal deposed in the Chamber by Leona Detiege calls for decriminalization of voluntary abortions and recognition of the decision-making autonomy of the woman. Legislative reforms express more than agreements of ideologic and political forces; they manifest compromises, negotiations, confrontations, and even insults between social groups and classes. The discourse of general interest is often used to legitimize the demands of specific groups. Herman-Michielsens' proposal would permit abortion only if continuation of the pregnancy posed a grave threat to the life or health of the mother, and only in a hospital by a gynecologist aided by a committee consisting of gynecologists, a specially trained psychologist or psychiatrist, a social nurse, and a jurist. Modalities of control over the sexuality of women would thus be involved, with power exercised through refusal of the right to dispose of their own bodies to women, censure expressed by mandatory committees reviewing each case, and penal sanctions against abortions not deemed therapeutic. The argument in favor of penal sanctions invokes the general interest in the sense of the social order; use of the notion of abortion as an offense against the social order disguises the exercise of social control over sexuality. In the view of this proposal, the dissociation of sexuality and procreation constitutes a peril that must be fought with coercive measures. The proposal is based on an ideological conservatism characterized by a paternalistic attitude toward women and a view of freedom which focuses on abuses and potential excesses. Paternalism, hatred of permissiveness, moralism, fear of sexual pleasure and an appeal to emotions are the ingredients of an ideologic conservatism which would enforce maternity in case of a contraceptive failure. In the pluralist legislative proposal of L. Detiege, "respect for life" is formulated not abstractly but in concrete terms of the woman, the child to be born, and the couple. When advocates of decriminalization invoke respect for the quality of life, they call attention to the excessive rigidity of traditional Christian morality and its lack of adaptation to concrete situations. The current law fosters inequality because wealthier women can easily obtain abortions in other countries, and it is undemocratic because it fails to allow for philosophical pluralism. For feminists, the ability to control their own bodies constitutes 1 part of a larger struggle for equality with men in the social division of labor.
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