From: dsholtsi@csl36h.csl.ncsu.edu (Doug Holtsinger)
Newsgroups: talk.abortion
Subject: Pro-life feminism
Date: 3 Oct 92 03:04:56 GMT
Reply-To: dsholtsi@csl36h.csl.ncsu.edu (Doug Holtsinger)
Organization: North Carolina State University


Pro-life Feminism: An idea whose time has come
The Congressional Record, June 20, 1989, E 2221

Melissa Simmons Tulin,  
President of Feminists for Life of Pennsylvania


   To most people, the term "pro-life feminist" is  a  contradiction
   in  terms.  While  Gloria Steinem and Jerry Falwell agree on very
   little, both have stated that is impossible  to  support  womens'
   rights  without  being  in  favor  of abortion-on-demand as well.
   Indeed, the focus of the modern women's  movement  has  been  the
   securing  of  abortion  rights, and when the Roe v. Wade decision
   was handed down, some feminists literally danced in the streets.

   Feminism can be defined as a philosophy that allows each  indivi-
   dual  to reach his or her fullest potential, unhindered by sexism
   or racism. But by encouraging fatal discrimination  against  pre-
   born children (half of whom are women), the feminist movement has
   made a tragic error that has actually set women back.

   Since 1973, a growing number of men and women have been challeng-
   ing  the assumption that in order to be ``equal'' with men, women
   must be able to destroy their own children at will. Feminists for
   Life was formed by two women who were unofficially excommunicated
   from the National Organization for Women because they  would  not
   ``shut  up'' about the abortion issue. With chapters in all fifty
   states and several countries, including Canada and  New  Zealand,
   Feminists  for  Life  provides  an  increasingly active voice for
   those of us who believe in both fetal and women's rights.

   Who are pro-life feminists? We are doctors  and  lawyers,  secre-
   taries, scientists, and homemakers, mothers and others, but first
   and foremost, we are radicals--people who get to the roots of the
   problems that face women in society.

   We realize that abortion is a cry for help; a symptom of the many
   problems  affecting  women. Many undergo abortions not because of
   ``choice'', but because of a lack of it.   The  single  woman  on
   public  assistance  who  must decide between feeding the children
   around her table and killing the one growing inside her does  not
   have  a  real  choice.  Neither does the teenager who must either
   abort her child or face a life where she has a  50/50  chance  of
   ending  up an impoverished single mother. It comes as no surprise
   that 18- and 19-year olds have the highest abortion rate  of  any
   age  group,  as this is a time when important decisions affecting
   one's whole life are made.  How  can  women  make  life-affirming
   choices  in  a  society that penalizes us for having children and
   treats an unplanned pregnancy as a ``disease''  to  be  ``cured''
   with  curette and suction aspirator? The best way to end abortion
   is to eliminate the problems that lead to it.

   Pro-abortion feminists reason that in order to be equal with men,
   women  must  be  able  to make themselves ``unpregnant'' at will.
   However, by making abortion-on-demand the rallying point  of  the
   women's movement, they have not only alienated millions of poten-
   tial supporters, they have shifted attention away from  the  many
   crucial issues that affect women's lives.

   With the review of the Webster case, NOW president Molly Yard has
   declared  a  ``state of emergency'' for American women.  But mil-
   lions of women live each day of their lives in a ``state of emer-
   gency''  for  reasons that have nothing to do with abortion. With
   all the focus on the right to  kill,  pro-choice  feminists  have
   forgotten  that,  at  some time in their lives, eighty percent of
   American women will have children,  often  without  the  societal
   support  that  is  necessary to experience pregnancy, childbirth,
   and parenting with dignity.

   Planned Parenthood, which claims to be concerned with the  health
   of women, sees more than 2 million women a year--most of them low
   income--and is the nation's leading  purveyor  of  abortion  ser-
   vices, but provides prenatal care to only 12% of its clients. Why
   must it be up to the  pro-life  movement--us  wild-eyed,  ``anti-
   choice  fanatics''--to  offer these women emotional and financial
   support? Perhaps it is because the only ``choice'' Molly Yard and
   her ilk recognize is the one to abort.

   Much of the support for abortion-on-demand comes from allegations
   that  prior to legalization, thousands of women died from illegal
   abortions performed by ``back-alley butchers''.

   However, according to the U.S. Center  for  Disease  Control,  in
   1972--before  Roe  v.  Wade--only  35  women  died from abortion-
   related complications--a far cry from the 5,000 plus figure  that
   is often quoted.

   And women are still being maimed  and  killed  by  ``safe,  legal
   abortions''.   One  reputable study, undertaken in 1981 by Thomas
   W. Hilgers, M.D. and Dennis O'Hare,  found  that  while  maternal
   deaths  due  to  criminal abortion have decreased, they have been
   replaced, one for one, by maternal deaths due to legal  abortion.
   Indeed,  the  only  difference between the ``back-alley butcher''
   and today's abortionist is that the latter  plies  his  murderous
   trade  in the open, with the sanction of the law and the applause
   of the women's movement.

   True ``reproductive rights'' entail the right of every  woman  to
   quality pre-natal care, to support through difficult pregnancies,
   and to full educational, social, and economic opportunity for her
   offspring. They do not include the right to kill children already
   conceived.

   Pro-life feminists are part of the women's movement, and we  will
   no  longer be content to stay at the back of the bus. Our goal is
   to create a world where no woman must have an  abortion,  and  we
   hope  that someday our pro-choice sisters will realize that women
   will never climb to equality over the dead bodies of their  chil-
   dren.