By Brian Carnell

Thursday, October 28, 1999

I consider myself very strongly pro-choice, but even I can see the problems with this advocacy research that Pollitt is trying to pass of as "empirical research" (why does this study only examine 50 countries,for example? Everything about it seems designed to predestine the outcome of the study.)

The part I loved, though, was Pollitt's putting in the good word for Castro noting that, "Cuba, the only country in Latin America that permits abortion without restriction, has universal free health care and education, and the lowest infant mortality rates in that region. In anti-choice Egypt, Haiti, Guatemala, Indonesia, Paraguay and Brazil children live on the street." God forbid Pollitt point out that the United States also allows abortion for pretty much any reason and has a lower infant mortality rate than Cuba. Plus the United States generally doesn't throw people in jail for criticizing our president as Castro has been doing lately.

In fact the United States completely contradicts Pollitt's point since infant mortality is low here, abortion is freely available, and we have nothing like the sort of European social spending that Pollitt sees as a sign of a caring society.

Source:

Anti-Choice, Anti-Child. Katha Pollitt, The Nation, November 15, 1999.

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