Pro-Life Feminists Challenge Abortion’s Link to Women’s Rights

Details: 22 March 2013

March is Women’s History Month and Feminists for Life (FFL) is using the opportunity to challenge the common perception that feminism and abortion go hand in hand. In several recent Facebook posts FFL makes a compelling case that it’s the pro-life position that represents authentic feminism.

"Can you really be a feminist and pro-life?" one post asks. "Yes. Feminists for Life of America continues the tradition of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other early American feminists who opposed abortion. Our efforts are shaped by the core feminist values of nondiscrimination, nonviolence and justice for all.

"Established in 1972, Feminists for Life is a nonsectarian, nonpartisan, grassroots organization that seeks real solutions to the challenges women face. Abortion is a reflection that we have failed women—and women have settled for less."

Another FFL Facebook post gets to the heart of the matter: "One side says that abortion is the enfranchisement and elevation of women, out of enslavement to their fertility. The other side says the opposite, that abortion degrades women. How can women be so divided on this issue? Where does this division stem from?"

Answer: "Abortion advocates and pro-lifer activists both need to know this—especially those who aren’t old enough to know how women and children were betrayed. As FFL President Serrin Foster explains when she presents ‘The Feminist Case Against Abortion,’ the two men who founded NARAL—originally known as the National Association to Repeal the Abortion Laws—advocated the repeal of anti-abortion laws.

"Larry Lader wanted to repeal abortion laws because of population concerns. NARAL’s cofounder was a doctor named Bernard Nathanson, who later became pro-life. Having seen a botched abortion in Chicago, he reasoned—like some who promote legalizing prostitution—that ‘legal’ would mean ‘safer.’

"These two had traveled the country advocating the repeal of what they believed to be antiquated abortion laws. After failing to convince legislators that anti-abortion laws were ‘archaic,’ Nathanson reported that Lader… approached leaders of the women’s movement. He reasoned that if a woman wanted to be educated like a man, hired like a man, and promoted like a man, women shouldn’t expect their employers to accommodate pregnancy."

In a January 25, 2013 editorial published in the Washington Examiner, Serrin Foster exposed a similar argument for abortion put forward by Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who argued for legalizing abortion before the Supreme Court in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case.

"As her arguments for abortion before the Supreme Court made clear, Weddington saw the discrimination and other injustices faced by pregnant women. But she did not demand that these injustices be remedied. Instead, she demanded for women the ‘right’ to submit to these injustices by destroying their pregnancies.

"Weddington rightly pointed out the unmet needs of students and workers: ‘[T]here are many schools where a woman is forced to quit if she becomes pregnant. ... In the matter of employment, she often is forced to quit at an early point in her pregnancy. She has no provision for maternity leave.... She cannot get unemployment compensation under our laws, because the laws hold that she is not eligible for employment, being pregnant, and therefore is eligible for no unemployment compensation.’ But Weddington didn’t argue against pregnancy discrimination or for alternate solutions for pregnant students.

"For women with serious medical needs, Weddington further noted: ‘There is no duty for employers to rehire women if they must drop out to carry a pregnancy to term. And, of course, this is especially hard on the many women in Texas who are heads of their own households and must provide for their already existing children.’

"Weddington repeatedly said that women need ‘relief’ from pregnancy, instead of arguing that women need relief from these injustices. What if Weddington had used her legal acumen to challenge the system to address women’s needs?"

Feminists for Life points out in compelling fashion that portraying abortion as "reproductive choice or freedom" is the cruelest of hoaxes ever perpetrated upon women. Representing the words and actions of the early American feminists, FFL says that abortion is, in fact, "a reflection that we have not met the needs of women and that women deserve better."

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.