The Feminist Case Against Abortion
The abortion debate is full of horror stories on both
sides of the issue. Coercive and unethical counselors lie to vulnerable
women and pressure them. This has happened in some abortion clinics as
well as some pregnancy care centers. Women have died from botched abortions,
both before abortion was legalized and after, when it is supposed to be
safe. Fanatics resort to violence on both extremes of the pro-choice/pro-life
spectrum.
Focusing on these isolated incidents and extreme cases
makes for effective fund-raising. What it does not do is help women -
which was what the original feminist movement set out to do. In the 1960's,
certain factions of the women's movement made a drastic about-face.
The feminist movement was born more than two hundred
years ago when Mary Wollstonecraft wrote "A Vindication of the Rights
of Women." After decrying the sexual exploitation of women, she condemned
those who would "either destroy the embryo in the womb, or cast it off
when born." Shortly thereafter, abortion became illegal in Great Britain.
The now revered feminists of the 19th century were
also strongly opposed to abortion because of their belief in the worth
of all humans. Like many women in developing countries today, they opposed
abortion even though they were acutely aware of the damage done to women
through constant child-bearing. They opposed abortion despite knowing
that half of all children born died before the age of five. They knew
that women had virtually no rights within the family or the political
sphere. But they did not believe abortion was the answer.
Without known exception, the early American feminists
condemned abortion in the strongest possible terms. In Susan B. Anthony's
newsletter, The Revolution, abortion was described as "child
murder," "infanticide" and "foeticide." Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who in
1848 organized the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New
York, classified abortion as a form of infanticide and said, "When you
consider that women have been treated as property, it is degrading to
women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of
as we see fit."
Anti-abortion laws enacted in the latter half of the
19th century were a result of advocacy efforts by feminists who worked
in an uneasy alliance with the male-dominated medical profession and the
mainstream media. The early feminists understood that, much like today,
women resorted to abortion because they were abandoned or pressured by
boyfriends, husbands and parents and lacked financial resources to have
a baby on their own.
Ironically, the anti-abortion laws that early feminists
worked so hard to enact to protect women and children were the very ones
destroyed by the Roe v. Wade decision 100 years later - a decision hailed
by the National Organization for Women (NOW) as the "emancipation of women."
The goals of the more recent NOW-led women's movement
with respect to abortion would have outraged the early feminists. What
Elizabeth Cady Stanton called a "disgusting and degrading crime" has been
heralded by Eleanor Smeal, former president of NOW and current president
of the Fund for a Feminist Majority, as a "most fundamental right."
Betty Friedan, credited with reawakening feminism
in the 1960's with her landmark book, The Feminine Mystique,
did not even mention abortion in the early edition. It was not until 1966
that NOW included abortion in its list of goals. Even then abortion was
a low priority.
It was a man - abortion rights activist Larry Lader,
who remains active today - who credits himself with guiding a reluctant
Friedan to make abortion an issue for NOW. Lader had been working to repeal
the abortion laws based on population growth concerns, but state legislators
were horrified by his ideas. (Immigration and improved longevity were
fueling America's population growth - not reproduction, which in fact
had declined dramatically.)
Lader teamed up with a gynecologist, Bernard Nathanson,
to co-found the National Alliance to Repeal Abortion Laws, the forerunner
of today's National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL).
Lader suggested to the NOW leadership that all feminist
demands (equal education, jobs, pay, etc.) hinged on a woman's ability
to control her own body and procreation. After all, employers did not
want to pay for maternity benefits or lose productivity when a mother
took time off to care for a newborn or sick child. Lader convinced the
NOW leadership that legalized abortion was the key to the workplace.
Dr. Nathanson, who later became a pro-life activist,
states in his book, Aborting America, that the two were able
to convince Friedan that abortion was a civil rights issue. Later he admitted
that they simply made up the numbers of women dying from illegal abortions,
which had been a major point in their argument.
Lader's and Nathanson's strategy was highly effective.
NOW has made the preservation of legal abortion its number one priority.
Its literature repeatedly states that access to abortion is "the most
fundamental right of women, without which all other rights are meaningless."
With this drastic change, a highly visible faction
of the women's movement abandoned the vision of the early feminists: a
world where women would be accepted and respected as women. There are
now 1.3 million surgical abortions per year in the United States. The
Alan Guttmacher Institute (the research arm of Planned Parenthood) reports
that women have abortions for two primary reasons: lack of financial resources
and lack of emotional support.
continue reading here
Feminists
for Life is dedicated to systematically eliminating the reasons that
drive women to abortion, primarily lack of resources and support,
because women deserve better.
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