June 19, 2008 at 8:12 am · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: ableism, abortion, disability, eugenics, internalized ableism, prenatal screening, Ruth Hubbard, selective abortion, socialist worker
Socialist Worker ran an editorial recently about disability activists who are against the selective abortion of fetuses with disabilities, even in the case that the activist is generally pro-choice. The writer, Allen Hines, mangles the words of Ruth Hubbard, who says, “A woman must have the ability to abort a fetus, whatever her reasons, precisely because it is a decision about her body and how she will live her life, but the decisions about what kind of baby to bear inevitably are bedeviled by overt and unspoken judgments about which lives are ‘worth living.’” [emphasis mine]
Hines follows Hubbard’s quote by claiming that Hubbard only thinks women should legally be allowed access to abortion if disability is not involved, which is quite obviously not what Hubbard is saying. He continues by stating,
We must reject oscillation on the question of abortion. Disability theorists who waver about abortion when a fetus with a disability is involved do a disservice to women by helping to roll back the gains of Roe v. Wade.
Honestly, abortion was legalized in part to regulate something that was already happening. Like Hubbard, I don’t see selective abortion as a legal issue so much as a moral one. Aborting on the basis of disability is not dissimilar to eugenics and therefore should be critiqued, rather than broadly accepted. I am disappointed to see this article that seems to have so broadly missed the point of Hubbard’s argument published in the Socialist Worker.
You can read the story here.
February 23, 2008 at 8:46 pm · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: Fibromyalgia Aware, functional IQ, internalized ableism
Fibromyalgia Aware magazine is one magazine that I think generally does a decent job of talking about issues that are pertinent to people living with FMS and related conditions, rather than merely pathologizing them. Sure, the magazine is filled with hoaky ads for supplements and pillows that probably just don’t work, but the articles answer questions that some of us might not even think to ask, such as the last issue’s article on fibromyalgia and pregnancy.
The September to November 2007 issue of Fibromyalgia Aware magazine, however, included in article on something called “functional IQ”, which I think really exhibits the ableism that people with disabilities have internalized. The test has twelve questions that a person is supposed to answer, as to whether or not he or she is able to do the activity and with how much difficulty or with help. A person’s answers categorize them into low, moderate, and advanced “functional IQ”s–which, by the way, the “i” stands for independence, not intelligence. Heaven forbid we burden someone with helping us do something. The activities include things from dressing and bathing to heavy household chores and hiking and bicycling.
The article goes on to say that for many people with fibromyalgia “the risk for becoming disabled is high”, giving suggestions to the reader on how to “break the disability pathway”, and the author of the article tries to become a mouthpiece for all with fibromyalgia with blanket statements like, “having FM myself, I know…”.
It is so ridiculous to me to determine a person’s worth by their independence. It is okay to need help, and why should we measure things in terms of that?
