Tag Archives: Abortion

All Must Love the Human Form

By Robin Bates | Published: November 19, 2016

In “The Divine Image,” Blake gives us a poem for our time, a call to pray for mercy, pity, peace, and love and to recognize the human form in diversity. In “The Human Abstract” he adds that prayer is not enough. It must be accompanied by human justice.

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Unwanted Pregnancies, Desperate Women

By Robin Bates | Published: November 22, 2015

As reproductive service centers are closed down by conservative state legislatures, attempted self abortions are on the rise. For a literary depiction of a desperate woman there is Hetty Sorrel from George Eliot’s “Adam Bede.”

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Misusing Metaphor in the Abortion Debates

By Robin Bates | Published: October 6, 2015

Both sides are misusing metaphor in the abortion debates. If we want a deeper vision of reality, we must turn to literature.

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Clifton, Abortion, & Respecting Women

By Robin Bates | Published: September 30, 2015

Shock strategies by anti-abortionists may work on Congress but are less likely to work on women. As the body poems of Lucille Clifton demonstrate, women already know much more about their bodies than Congressmen do.

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Queasy about Bodies Used for Medicine

By Robin Bates | Published: August 4, 2015

The sting videos by anti-abortion activists are designed to shock. But being shocked by the use of dead bodies for medical research is nothing new, as seen in the grave robbing scene in “Tom Sawyer.”

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Imagine Austen vs. War on Women

By Robin Bates | Published: September 30, 2014

Rightwing attacks on reproductive rights have their antecedents in the moralistic judgments of Mr. Collins and Mary Bennet in “Pride and Prejudice.”

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Female Freedom Drives Right Crazy

By Robin Bates | Published: March 24, 2014

Euripides “The Bacchae” well describes rightwing legislators obsessed with abortion.

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Is Atwood’s Dystopia Coming True?

By Robin Bates | Published: July 25, 2013

Atwood’s dystopian “Handmaid’s Tale” argues forcefully that women must maintain control over their own bodies.

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Is Atwood’s Dystopia Coming True?

By Robin Bates | Published: April 22, 2013

With the rise in state legislatures passing anti-abortion legislation, Atwood’s “Handmaid’s Tale” seems more relevant than ever.

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