What does “access” mean?

James N. writes:

Does Sandra Fluke have access to bread?

LA replies:

You’re still thinking old-style. Bread is just something to maintain our bodies. But birth-control pills represent self-autonomy, specifically women’s self-autonomy, which is a higher value than mere physical life, indeed, the highest value there is. Women’s self-autonomy—their absolute right to choice and freedom, their independence of all natural, social, and cultural limitations—is a god of our society. Women themselves are gods, or rather goddesses. Should a goddess have to pay money to mere mortals in order to go on enjoying her godhood? No, because that would lower her to the level of a mortal herself and she would stop being a goddess. So, insofar as women are and should remain goddesses, to require them to pay for contraceptives is to deny them access to contraceptives.

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Mark P. writes:

The Sandra Fluke affair is the perfect arena to apply some “Game” principles to politics, something the Republicans never seem to do. I would suggest the “turnaround and amplify” technique. Instead of fighting against contraception and abortion, insist it is a good thing because Democrat women should contracept and abort their children. It means the children of Republicans would not need to battle the children of Democrats in the future. I can’t think of a better situation than turning a 30-year-old Sandra Fluke into a 40-year-old woman who is single, childless and fat.

The real purpose of arguing against abortion and contraception is to discourage the practice among decent Republican families so that the number of Republicans can grow and flourish. Democrats can go barren for all I care.

Live births and adoptions for Republicans. Abortions and contraceptives for Democrats.

Jim Kalb writes:

“Access” is a cant word, a way of assimilating welfare rights to freedom.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 10, 2012 01:50 PM | Send