Frances Kissling and aborting the poor

In a recent Salon.com article Frances Kissling argues that it is better morally for a poor ignorant woman to have an abortion then to have a baby (I am paraphrasing, of course). She does not tell her readers what a poor smart woman or rich ignorant woman should do with an unintended pregnancy, perhaps for Kissling these kinds of women do not exist.

Kissling's argument is a response to Congresswoman Rosa Delauro's statement that the U.S. should

foster an environment that encourages pregnancies to be carried to term.

This statement is part of a promotion for the Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act. I must admit that I have not yet read this act. Delauro's statement and the Acts title, for me, suggests that this act is problematic on several levels.

For Kissling

In its extreme application DeLauro's ideal would applaud Pope John Paul II's plea to Muslim women in Bosnia and Herzegovina who had been raped by Christians during the war. In a 1993 letter he called on the community to draw close to these raped and degraded women and "help them transform an act of violence into an act of love and welcome" by having their rapists' babies.

Whoa!

Kissling starts off with a valid question: Should we encourage women to have babies? For me this question might lead to a discussion of heteronormativity, government sanctioned gender roles, or how the desire for parenthood is constructed. But Kissling isn't interested in thinking critically.
Instead she argues that sometimes it is morally better to end a pregnancy. The people whom she thinks should abort are poor ignorant 22 year olds who are caviler about the consequences of sex, are confused about life and have low self esteem.

And being poor and ignorant and living in a country that doesn't care that you are both doesn't eliminate personal responsibility or moral agency. Somewhere along the line it would be helpful if feminists acknowledged that far too many women (and men) are irresponsible when it comes to sex and pregnancy. If we want to say that women can be trusted to make good decisions about reproduction, then we need to demand of each other that we make good decisions about not becoming pregnant.

I am pro-abortion and pro-choice; I do not believe that having or not having a child is a moral decision. And though Kissling acknowledges that rich people can be bad parents and that poor people can be good parents her piece slides down a slippery eugenicist slope and lands squarely on the mind set of "if you can't feed them; don't breed them."