Sunday, May 01, 2005


Who's Pro-Choice Now?
Feminist groups have come out against a woman's right to control her body. No, it's not April Fool's Day, and the story didn't appear in the satirical paper The Onion.

The Food and Drug Administration held a three-day meeting to discuss lifting the 13-year-old ban on silicone gel breast implants. Groups such as the National Organization for Women and the Feminist Majority Foundation lined up to demand that the FDA keep the ban.

"We strongly urge the FDA not to approve silicone gel breast implants," NOW president Kim Gandy told the FDA's scientific advisory panel. When the panel recommended by a 5-4 vote to continue the ban, Gandy called it "a tremendous victory for women's health."

But what about a woman's right to choose? Wasn't NOW founded on the principle of a woman's right to control her own body?

When an implant wearer told feminist protesters that "women need choices," Gandy responded, "Choice? The choice is to be sick."

Gandy wasn't alone. The National Women's Health Network and the National Council of Women's Organizations also petitioned the FDA to maintain its ban.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) says of abortion, "I am not a doctor, and I am not God. I trust other human beings to make these decisions." But she has written to the FDA asking it not to allow women to get silicone implants....