Many people assume that feminism and the movement to legalize abortion are virtually synonymous.
Some equate feminism with a virulent leftist political philosophy that advocates abortion, lesbianism, pornography, witchcraft, and goddess worship. For most early feminists, Christian idealism was the motivating force behind their demands for the reform of attitudes and laws that allowed the suppression of the weak. Besides pleading the cause of women, they were active in the abolition of slavery, in establishing the rights of Native Americans, in reform homes for prostitutes, in protection of children's rights, and in the temperance movement. These goals were, and are, very much in keeping with the Christian's call to reform the world, and they continue to be a part of the modern feminist movement. They condemned male promiscuity, and denounced the social injustices that induced their sisters to degrade themselves in lives of prostitution.