JAMES TARANTO: Unplanned Parenthood: Illegitimacy and the liberal elite.
Roiphe’s views are fully consistent with the selective nonjudgmentalism that is an essential component of contemporary feminist ideology (selective because feminists are happy to stigmatize men–“deadbeat dads,” for instance–and women like Sarah Palin who reject the pieties of feminism). It’s also true that Roiphe is blasé about the effects on children, including children less privileged than her own offspring, of growing up without fathers. To her, the only risk worth worrying about is that they will bear the brunt of others’ censure.
But when you read Roiphe’s article, it turns out there’s more going on here. For one thing, ideologically she is just confused. . . . What these anecdotes show is that the stigma against illegitimacy (though not abortion) is alive and well among affluent social liberals. Surely that is an important reason that, as Charles Murray has shown, their out-of-wedlock birthrates are much lower than those of the less privileged.
Roiphe seems to want society to shed what standards it has left in order that she can feel good about herself.
Do as I say, not as I do.