Your regularly scheduled white male privilege check: SCOTUS nominee edition

Ah, another otherwise lovely evening out with the white male liberals, marred by some ugly white male liberal privilege.

This week, it was the assertion that we don't need more liberal women on the Supreme Court, so long as we have liberal justices. The sex of the next few appointees doesn't matter, in other words -- they just have to be liberals.

Guys, guys, guys. You remember that the federal late-term abortion ban was upheld in 2007, right? It was only three years ago. And you remember why it was upheld? It was upheld because, so the argument went, the state has a substantial interest in protecting women from the emotional harm that a small minority of women may sometimes feel after they have an abortion. This interest, according to the Court, outweighs the woman's or her doctor's interest in terminating a pregnancy that endangers her health. In sum, a woman loses her right to constitutional due process once her pregnancy has advanced to the point where the usual termination procedure would be an intact D & E.

Next step to checking your privilege: how many American women get pregnant every year? Over six million pregnancies occur in the U.S. annually. About half are unintended. And the trend continues through American women's lifetimes: about half of all American women will unintentionally fall pregnant at some point during their childbearing years, at least one time (WSJ).

More: In America, about one third of all women will have at least one abortion during their childbearing years (Guttmacher.org). Still with me? This means that of all the American women you know, you know a woman, likely a few women, who've had an abortion.

Think about the women you met and spoke to at Drinking Liberally on Tuesday. One of us -- probably more -- has voluntarily terminated a pregnancy. And of all of us, we fall into one of two categories. Now, the categories aren't "women who've had abortions" and "women who haven't"; it's women who have had to decide whether to get an abortion, and women who haven't had to make the decision. Most women eventually get pregnant sometime between ages 15 and 44. Before they do, they're in the latter category. After they do, they're in the former category -- and a million of us choose an abortion every year in America.

Not done yet. The question here is why we need more women on the Supreme Court rather than settling for more male liberals. Pardon me from pointing out the obvious: men can never join either of those categories. But on average, most American women bring at least one child into the world before they leave it themselves (Census.gov PDF). Thus, most American women are now or will eventually be in that first category.

Abortion is an integral part of women's reproductive health care. The right to a safe, legal abortion at any time during a pregnancy should be solely in the hands of the woman and her doctor, just as any other aspect of an American's healthcare decisions should be.

When abortions are outlawed, women will still get abortions, because most women are now or will eventually be in that first category. When abortions are outlawed, no men will die in pools of their own blood on filthy motel room floors (graphic).

And this is why we need more women, not just more liberal men, on the Supreme Court.