One of life’s greatest jokes is that you can actually plan parenthood. Jennifer Roback Morse has a good line on this: She was an economics prof, was going to time her pregnancy to coincide with summer break and have the baby in care by the time September rolled around. That didn’t work. She ended up successfully adopting–but then also coincidentally conceiving–at the same time. Two kids in less than nine months, a record, she jokes, even for a Catholic.

Pro-choicers will admit as much in candid moments. Over coffee, an acquaintance who worked for Planned Parenthood (we would meet to hash out the issues) once sighed–it’s true, most kids are not planned.

Ultimately, that’s why law suits like this a such a shame: Awarding damages for kids because they were born should never be the jurisdiction of the courts. If someone needs help, private citizens and charitable organizations should step in to do so. But this sets a precedent that allows the myth to flourish–that women have total and complete control over reproduction, always.