From: dsholtsi@csl36h.csl.ncsu.edu (Doug Holtsinger)
Subject: Re: The Infamous `Value of a Man' Article
Reply-To: dsholtsi@csl36h.csl.ncsu.edu (Doug Holtsinger)
Organization: North Carolina State University
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 18:40:38 GMT

In article <1992Aug15.041916.1000@wdl.loral.com> bard@cutter.ssd.loral.com writes:

> But it isn't, because the patriarchal view is that men have the
> natural right to control reproduction. And *that's* bizarre.

Some feminists argue that advocacy for abortion rights supports the
patriarchal view.  See the attached article.

------------
Feminists for Life of America
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
for Women repeatedly refers to abortion as the ``the most fundamental
right of women''--more important than even 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 patriarchal 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:

      "Feminism is part of a larger philosophy that values all life."

  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
new responsibility we all have for one another. This feminism rejects
the male view that sees individuals as functioning separately from
their fellows, in mutual cooperation.

  Abortion is incompatible with this feminist vision. Abortion atomizes
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 commit themselves to their mates or
their children. Women 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,
gentle, living, 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.

  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. Those 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--
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 reduced 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 patriarchal world view, these feminists have capitulated to male
dominance. Women who agree to conform to the ideal of a world made by
and for men are not liberated; they have merely altered their roles
within the patriarchy.

  
Feminists for Life of America
811 East 47th Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64110

_The Abortion Debate in the United States and Canada_, Maureen Muldoon,
Garland Publishing, 1991

Xref: sparky talk.abortion:31482 talk.religion.misc:13925