Pro-life feminism
Encyclopedia
Pro-life feminism is the opposition to abortion
by a group of feminists
who believe that the principles which inform their support of women's rights also call them to support the right to life
of prenatal humans. Pro-life feminists believe abortion has served to hurt women more than it has benefited them.
The most prominent pro-life feminist organizations in the United States are Feminists for Life
(FFL) and the Susan B. Anthony List
(SBA List).
, writes that when abortion is legal, pro-life feminists believe, "women come to see pregnancy and parenting as obstacles to full participation in education and the workplace."
Pro-life feminist organizations generally do not distinguish between views on abortion as a legal issue, abortion as a moral issue, and abortion as a medical procedure. Such distinctions are made by many women, for example, women who would not abort their own pregnancies but would prefer that abortion remain legal.
Prominent American pro-life feminist organizations seek to end abortion in the U.S. The SBA List states this as their "ultimate goal", and FFL founder Serrin Foster said that FFL "opposes abortion in all cases because violence is a violation of basic feminist principles".
At the same time, there are pro-life feminists who focus on making abortion obsolete by relieving its root causes at every level of society from the individual to the global—for example, from personally providing direct aid to pregnant women, adopting children with disabilities, campaigning for global access to antiretrovirals, and by advocating women's economic justice worldwide.
Having failed to gain a respected position within traditional feminism, pro-life feminists have aligned themselves with other anti-abortion, "right to life" groups. This placement sets them against the feminist movement, and erodes the sense of an identity separate from other pro-life groups, despite the pro-life feminist "pro-woman" arguments that are distinct from the "fetal rights" arguments put forward by others.
, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
, Matilda Joslyn Gage
, Victoria Woodhull
, Elizabeth Blackwell
, and Alice Paul
who considered abortion to be an evil forced upon women by men. In their newspaper, The Revolution
, they published letters, essays and editorials debating many issues of the day, including articles decrying abortion as "child murder" and "infanticide."
A dispute about Anthony's abortion views
arose in the late 20th century: pro-life feminists in the U.S. began using Anthony's words and image to promote their pro-life cause. Scholars of 19th-century American feminism, as well as pro-choice activists, countered what they considered a co-opting of Anthony's legacy as America's most dedicated suffragist, saying that the pro-life activists are falsely attributing opinions to Anthony and also that applying words from the 19th century to the modern abortion debate is misleading.
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
by a group of feminists
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
who believe that the principles which inform their support of women's rights also call them to support the right to life
Right to life
Right to life is a phrase that describes the belief that a human being has an essential right to live, particularly that a human being has the right not to be killed by another human being...
of prenatal humans. Pro-life feminists believe abortion has served to hurt women more than it has benefited them.
The most prominent pro-life feminist organizations in the United States are Feminists for Life
Feminists for Life
Feminists for Life of America is a non-profit, pro-life feminist, non-governmental organization . Established in 1972 and now based in Alexandria, Virginia, the organization describes itself as "shaped by the core feminist values of justice, nondiscrimination, and nonviolence." FFL is dedicated...
(FFL) and the Susan B. Anthony List
Susan B. Anthony List
The Susan B. Anthony List, or simply SBA List, is a 501 non-profit, non-partisan organization that seeks to eliminate abortion in the U.S. by supporting pro-life politicians, primarily women, through its SBA List Candidate Fund political action committee...
(SBA List).
Views and goals
Pro-life feminists believe that the legal option of abortion "supports anti-motherhood social attitudes and policies and limits respect for women's citizenship". Laury Oaks, Associate Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa BarbaraUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
, writes that when abortion is legal, pro-life feminists believe, "women come to see pregnancy and parenting as obstacles to full participation in education and the workplace."
Pro-life feminist organizations generally do not distinguish between views on abortion as a legal issue, abortion as a moral issue, and abortion as a medical procedure. Such distinctions are made by many women, for example, women who would not abort their own pregnancies but would prefer that abortion remain legal.
Prominent American pro-life feminist organizations seek to end abortion in the U.S. The SBA List states this as their "ultimate goal", and FFL founder Serrin Foster said that FFL "opposes abortion in all cases because violence is a violation of basic feminist principles".
At the same time, there are pro-life feminists who focus on making abortion obsolete by relieving its root causes at every level of society from the individual to the global—for example, from personally providing direct aid to pregnant women, adopting children with disabilities, campaigning for global access to antiretrovirals, and by advocating women's economic justice worldwide.
Relationship to other movements
The tenets of pro-life feminism have been rejected by mainstream feminists who hold that "the moral and legal right to control her fertility remains a dominant feminist position." Mainstream feminists still feel that, for full participation in society, the individual woman should be able to decide when and if she has children. This conflicts with pro-life feminism which is against abortion at its foundation. From their minority position, pro-life feminists say mainstream feminists do not speak for all women.Having failed to gain a respected position within traditional feminism, pro-life feminists have aligned themselves with other anti-abortion, "right to life" groups. This placement sets them against the feminist movement, and erodes the sense of an identity separate from other pro-life groups, despite the pro-life feminist "pro-woman" arguments that are distinct from the "fetal rights" arguments put forward by others.
19th-century feminists
Feminist pro-life groups say they are continuing the tradition of 19th century women's rights activists such as Susan B. AnthonySusan B. Anthony
Susan Brownell Anthony was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States. She was co-founder of the first Women's Temperance Movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as President...
, Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an American social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early woman's movement...
, Matilda Joslyn Gage
Matilda Joslyn Gage
Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage was a suffragist, a Native American activist, an abolitionist, a freethinker, and a prolific author, who was "born with a hatred of oppression".-Early activities:...
, Victoria Woodhull
Victoria Woodhull
Victoria Claflin Woodhull was an American leader of the woman's suffrage movement, an advocate of free love; together with her sister, the first women to operate a brokerage in Wall Street; the first women to start a weekly newspaper; an activist for women's rights and labor reforms and, in 1872,...
, Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first female doctor in the United States and the first on the UK Medical Register...
, and Alice Paul
Alice Paul
Alice Stokes Paul was an American suffragist and activist. Along with Lucy Burns and others, she led a successful campaign for women's suffrage that resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.-Activism: Alice Paul received her undergraduate education from...
who considered abortion to be an evil forced upon women by men. In their newspaper, The Revolution
The Revolution (newspaper)
The Revolution was a weekly women's rights newspaper published between January 8, 1868 and February 1872. It was the official publication of the National Woman Suffrage Association which was formed by feminists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony...
, they published letters, essays and editorials debating many issues of the day, including articles decrying abortion as "child murder" and "infanticide."
A dispute about Anthony's abortion views
Susan B. Anthony abortion dispute
American suffragist Susan B. Anthony's position on abortion has been the subject of a modern-day dispute, centered not around Anthony's personal position on abortion, but rather around whether she worked or spoke against it and how she would fit into the modern debate over the...
arose in the late 20th century: pro-life feminists in the U.S. began using Anthony's words and image to promote their pro-life cause. Scholars of 19th-century American feminism, as well as pro-choice activists, countered what they considered a co-opting of Anthony's legacy as America's most dedicated suffragist, saying that the pro-life activists are falsely attributing opinions to Anthony and also that applying words from the 19th century to the modern abortion debate is misleading.
Further reading
- The Cost of 'Choice': Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion edited by Erika Bachiochi (2004, ISBN 1-59403-051-0)
- Prolife Feminism Yesterday & Today. Second & greatly expanded edition. Edited by Derr, Naranjo-Huebl, & MacNair (2005, ISBN 1-4134-9576-1)
- Prolife Feminism Yesterday & Today. edited by Derr, Naranjo-Huebl, and MacNair (1995, ISBN 0-945819-62-5)
- Pro-Life Feminism: Different Voices edited by Gail Grenier-Sweet (1985, ISBN 0-919225-22-5)
- Swimming Against the Tide: Feminist Dissent on the Issue of Abortion edited by Angela Kennedy (1997, ISBN 1-85182-267-4)