Britney Spears, the pop star who has struggled with her mental health and an oppressive conservatorship that prevented her from making her own life choices, has written a memoir. Among its revelations, according to People magazine, is that she had an abortion when she was a young woman and in a relationship with Justin Timberlake.
Spears details that, when she learned she was expecting, “Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy.” “He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young,” she adds.
Isn’t the decision to have an abortion supposed to be “up to her alone”? I thought that neither the preborn child’s father nor the state can encroach on a woman’s sacred “right to choose.” Apparently, this standard only applies in one direction.
Spears says that she wanted her baby, that “if it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it.” “And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father,” she says. Despite her saying that the abortion was “to this day, one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life” — just think of the inconvenience Timberlake has been spared!
I may be joking, but sadly others are not. Take this piece from USA Today by Katie Camero, who argues that “Spears’ statements underscore the benefits that male partners receive from having access to abortion.” (No kidding — pro-lifers have been complaining about this for years.) In support of this analysis, Camero quotes a sociologist, Bethany Everett:
Spears’ claim that Timberlake did not want to become a parent suggests he was aware that a child could “derail his career,” a reality that “men rarely publicly acknowledge” but is critical to recognize in a post-Roe world.
Might men be reluctant to acknowledge this “reality” because doing so reflects badly on them? Not according to Everett:
“Men do have a place in advocating for reproductive rights,” Everett said. “They can donate to abortion funds and reproductive health care organizations, and, importantly, with the consent of their partners, acknowledge how abortion access has benefited them.”
In response to the revelation, sources close to Timberlake told Entertainment Weekly that Timberlake is “focusing on his own family” — which presumably doesn’t include his dead preborn child — and that he and his new wife “just want everyone to grow and evolve instead of continuing to bring up the past.”
If only that were as easy for Spears.