Reply To: Robert Nisbet Pro-Choice?

[Jason Jewell]

I think you are probably right, although he’s not even really being prescriptive in that article on abortion in “Prejudices.” He explicitly says that the “woman’s right to choose” is not the thing under attack by anti-abortion advocates, but rather the autonomy of the family. The historical examples he uses are patriarchal; it’s the paterfamilias who decides whether the abortion takes place. That certainly won’t win him any friends among modern abortion-rights people.