Thanks to the ever-informative blogistas at Feministing for the following newsbit: according to the Khaleej Times, the UAE's Ministry of Health and Ministry of Justice took preliminary steps last week to introduce legal abortion in the United Arab Emirates. But hold on, frivolous female subjects: don't make your appointment just yet. According to Dr. Ali bin Shukar, the UAE's Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Health, "Abortion will be allowed in the country, but under tough conditions. Applicants must have valid reasons." And who gets to decide what constitutes a valid reason? Why, Dr. Shukar, of course! He elaborates:

Invalid excuses for abortion like wanting to get rid of the baby because they think they have had enough children or not wanting to keep the baby because they feel tired will not be considered genuine and sufficient reasons to go for abortion.

Call me crazy, but I find this somewhat hard to take from a country, 80 percent of which is covered in desert, that has an indoor ski slope.

But hey, at least the UAE is being honest about its contempt for the lazy, selfish women who seek abortions under circumstances that are neither health- nor life-threatening. We may have more permissive laws in the States (or, at least, in SOME states), but we often invoke a similar moral hierarchy when we sit down to judge pregnant women's behavior and decisions. What kind of message do we send, for example, when we impose mandatory 24-hour waiting periods on grown women seeking legal abortions (to weed out women who have abortions on a whim, I suppose), especially in states like Mississippi where there's only one provider in the entire state? What kind of message do we send when we incarcerate women who use drugs during their pregnancies, instead of providing pregnant women with support in battling drug addiction or providing them with any other health care, for that matter? Amidst all the moralizing, we wind up living in a country where anti-abortion advocates avail themselves of the right to terminate their own pregnancies, but fail to adjust their public discourse to reflect their personal experience. For a fascinating article on the subject, check out "The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion" by Joyce Arthur. Replace "moral" with "valid," and the U.S. reality isn't too far from Dr. Shukar's vision after all.