Abortion Undermines Women’s Rights, Dignity

Details: 11 January 2013

Abortion advocates have been very successful in selling the lie that abortion rights and women’s rights are inextricably linked. This linkage, however, between abortion rights and women’s rights is a relatively modern construct that does not have roots in the original feminist movement of the late 19th century.

There is strong evidence in the writings of the pioneers of the feminist movement that they viewed abortion as degrading to women; as evidence of something wrong with society. Here is what Elizabeth Cady Stanton said in a letter to Julia Ward Howe (October 16, 1873): "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."

In the September 2, 1869 edition of the feminist publication The Revolution, Mattie Brinkerhoff said "When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society - so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged."

Sarah Norton wrote the following in November 19, 1870 edition of Woodhull’s and Claflin’s Weekly: "Child murderers practice their profession without let or hinderance, and open infant butcheries unquestioned… Is there no remedy for all this ante-natal child murder?… Perhaps there will come a time when… an unmarried mother will not be despised because of her motherhood… and when the right of the unborn to be born will not be denied or interfered with."

Perhaps the most recognizable of the early feminists, Susan B. Anthony, wrote the following about Marriage and Maternity in her publication The Revolution: "Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!"

Clearly, these feminist pioneers had strong sentiments against abortion. And even the reconstituted feminist movement of the 1960s didn’t initially seem to connect abortion and women’s rights. For example, in the first edition of her 1963 book "The Feminine Mystique" which was credited with sparking a new wave of feminism, Betty Friedan didn’t even mention abortion.

So how did abortion become linked to women’s rights? The late Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a one-time abortionist (turned pro-lifer) who helped lead efforts to legalize abortion, said the idea came from his collaborator Larry Lader.

In his 1979 book "Aborting America," Nathanson recalled Lader saying "If we’re going to move abortion out of the books and into the streets, we’re going to have to recruit the feminists. Friedan has got to put her troops into this thing—while she still has control of them."

Rosemary Oelrich Bottcher, past president of Feminists for Life, wrote the following after Nathanson’s death in 2011: "When I met Nathanson at the National Right to Life convention in June of 1986, he told me that they convinced the leaders of NOW [National Organization of Women] that easy access to legal abortion was essential to ameliorating the problems that were thwarting the well-being of women, the problems that Friedan had identified in her book.

"We got them to see legal abortion as a civil rights issue, a basic women’s rights issue," Nathanson explained.

Kate Michelman, a recent past president of NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) took the link between abortion and women’s rights a step further when she said "Abortion is the guarantor of a woman’s ability to participate fully in the social and economic life of society."

It’s hard to imagine anything more diabolical (and degrading to women) than the notion that women’s rights can be advanced only if women have the legal right to destroy their own offspring.

You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.