In response to the recent draft ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on abortion rights, on May 7, the famous Canadian writer Margaret Atwood published an op-ed in the Guardian. In it, Atwood makes her view of the anti-abortion bill stark: It's the enslavement of women.
The article is titled "Forced Childbirth is a Slavery." At the beginning of the article, Atwood first asked the question: "No one likes abortion, even when it is safe and legal. No woman would choose to spend a happy Saturday night in this way. But no one likes it either. Women die on bathroom floors from illegal abortions. What should we do about that?"
Further, Atwood points out: Perhaps another way to address this is to ask, what kind of country do you want to live in? Is everyone free to make decisions about their health and body; or is half the population free and the other half enslaved?
Atwood likened the prospect of banning abortion to slavery, explaining: "Women who can't decide for themselves whether or not to have children are enslaved because the state demands ownership of their bodies and the right to dictate what their bodies are to be used for. Men only A similar situation is conscription. In both cases, the life of the individual is at risk, but the conscripted soldier has at least food, clothing and accommodation. Even criminals in prisons have the right to have these things. If the state forces childbirth , why not pay for prenatal care, the birth itself, postnatal care, and (those babies who aren't sold to wealthy families) the cost of raising children?
“If the state loves children so much, why not respect the women who have the most children and lift them out of poverty? If women provide necessary services to the state – albeit against their will – they certainly deserve to be paid for their work. If the goal is to have more babies, I'm sure many women will lend a helping hand if properly compensated. Otherwise, they tend to follow the laws of nature: placental mammals will abort when resources are scarce."
She further elaborated: “But I doubt the government is willing to provide the resources it needs. Instead, it just wants to reinforce the usual cheap tricks: forcing women to have children and then making them pay. Like I said, it’s a kind of slavery.
"If someone chooses to have children, of course it's a different matter. Children are a gift from God. But to be a gift, it must be freely given and freely received. Gifts can also be rejected. A gift that cannot be rejected is not a gift, but a sign of despotism.
"We say that women 'give the birth of life' and women who choose to be mothers feel it is a gift when they have a child. But if they don't have a choice, the birth of a child is not their gift to the world; this It was against their will, it was blackmailing them.
"No one can force a woman to have an abortion. And no one should force them to give birth. Forced childbirth is slavery: the requirement to own and control another person's body and profit from it."

Atwood's new book, Burning Questions, was published in March this year.

The article is an excerpt from Atwood's new book, Burning Questions, published in March by McClelland & Stewart. The book brings together articles Atwood has written over the past 17 years, covering global topics such as debt, climate change, pandemics, and more. For the book, Atwood said: "The 21st century has been a wild journey so far. Many questions that have been in the making for decades are now on fire. We should answer them quickly and effectively."
In addition to Urgent Questions, Atwood has written a novel set in the context of the new crown epidemic called Fourteen Days: An Unauthorized Gathering, which is expected to be published in September this year.