From: martyg@ocf.berkeley.edu (Martin Guerrero)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,talk.abortion
Subject: Feminists for Life (was Controlling Women, etc.)
Date: 14 Sep 1992 20:47:27 GMT
Organization: U. C. Berkeley Open Computing Facility
NNTP-Posting-Host: lightning.berkeley.edu

A long time ago, there was the suggestion that abortion is a means for men
to control women.  An opposing view held that being "pro-choice" in fact,
benefits the male.

Anyway, I found ths brochure recently and because it is interesting, I'd
like to share it with you as a means of reflecting on the debate several
weeks ago.

_______________________________


		ABORTION DOES NOT LIBERATE WOMEN

   Most modern feminists have made easy access to abortion the very symbol
of the liberation of women.  The literature of the National Organization
of Women repeatedly refers to abortion as "the most fundamental right of
women" -- more important even than the right to vote and the right to
free speech.  NOW has designated the protection of abortion rights as its
top priority.

   This is ironic, because abortion does not liberate women.  On the
contrary, abortion -- and the perceived need for it -- validate the 
patriarchical world view which holds that women, encumbered as they are by 
their reproductive capacity, are inferior to men.

   Abortion liberates men, not women.  There are three reasons for this:

   -- Efforts to establish abortion as a legitimate solution to the
problems of being a woman in a male-dominated society surrender women to
pregnancy discrimination.  These feminists who demand the right to abortion
concede the notion that a pregnant woman is inferior to a non-pregnant
one.  They admit that pregnancy and motherhood are incompatible to being 
a fully functioning adult, and that an unencumbered, unattached male is the
model for success.  By settling for abortion instead of working for the
social changes that would make it possible to combine children and career,
pro-abortion feminists have agreed to participate in a man's world under
a man's terms.  They have betrayed the majority of working women -- who
want to have children.

  -- Abortion allows men to escape responsibility for their own sexual 
behavior.  A man whose child is aborted is relieved of the requirement that
he support his children.  It is not surprising that the Playboy Foundation
is a major supporter of abortion rights, because abortion is a natural
consequence of the Playboy's ideal of uncommitted, anonymous sex without
consequences.  Women can be reduiced to the status of a consumer item, which
if "broken" by pregnancy can be "fixed" by abortion.

   -- Proabortion feminists have corrupted feminism by embracing male
standards, which hold that it is permissible to treat "unequals" unequally,
and for the powerful to oppress the weak.  By accepting this patriarchical
world view, these feminists have capitulated to male dominance.  Women
who agree to conform to the ideals of a world made by and for men are not 
liberated; they have merely altered their roles within the patriarchy.


   Truly liberated women reject abortion because they reject the male world
view that accepts violence as a legitimate solution to conflict.  Rather
than settling for mere equality -- the right to contribute equally to the
evil of the world -- prolife feminists seek to transform society to create
a world that reflects true feminist ideals.

   Feminism is, properly, part of a larger philosophy that values all life.
Feminists believe that all human beings have inherent worth and that this
worth cannot be conferred or denied by another.  True feminist thinking
recognizes the interdependence of all living things and the responsibility
we all have for one another.  This feminism rejects the male view that sees
individuals as functioning separately from their fellows, in mutual
competition.

   Abortion is incompatible with this feminist vision.  Abortion atmoizes
women.  It pits them against their own children as competitors for the
favors of the patriarchy.  Abortion is of great benefit to employers -- who
do not have to make concessions to pregnant women and mothers, to schools --
which do not have to accommodate to the needs of parents, and to 
irresponsible men -- who do not have to commit themselves to their mates
or their children.  Woemn who accept abortion have agreed to sacrifice their
children for the convenience of a man's world.

   Women who have been liberated from male thought patterns refuse to
participate in their own oppression and in the oppression of their 
children.  They refuse to accept abortion, which denigrates the life-giving
capacity of women.  They strive instead to create a world that recognizes
the moral superiority of maternal thinking and is, therefore, gently, loving,
nurturing, and pro-life.   Every abortion frustrates this goal and
perpetuates the patriarchy.  Liberated women will not cooperate.  They refuse
abortion and all it represents.

_____________________________

For more info, contact:

Feminists for Life Education Project
811 East 47th Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64110
(816) 753-2130

Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections