Abortion: a woman's right to choose
Some of the tabloids are attacking a woman for wanting an abortion. Model and escort Josie Cunningham said she didn’t want to have another child because she wants a career. She said, “This time next year I won’t have a baby. Instead, I’ll be famous, driving a bright pink Range Rover and buying a big house.”
Women should have the right to choose what they do with their own bodies—including whether to have a child—whatever the reason. But for the press, some reasons are more acceptable than others.
Papers are full of snobby moral judgements about Cunningham, who said her pregnancy threatened her chance to appear on the Big Brother TV show. Apparently wanting to be a celebrity is now a bad thing. This comes from the same tabloids that constantly splash celebrities on their front pages.
The papers describe Cunningham as a “glamour model” with the implication that she should be looked down on. Yet we live in a world where pole dancing and stripping are all hailed as somehow liberating.
Women are still told that looking good is a sign of success. Men are still more likely to get the top jobs and be better paid than women. And childcare puts yet more barriers in the way of women who want to work.
Cunningham has judged that having another child will get in the way of her career. She’s right.
And that’s the real problem.