An organization called the Center for Gender Equality recently conducted a survey of American women's attitudes on various political and social topics. Virtually all of the respondents were in favor of equality for women in matters such as employment, career advancement, and education. This should warm the heart of any feminist. (Indeed, if we hadn't reached this point by now, that would be cause for alarm.)
Some of the survey's findings were "disturbing" to the Center, though. Among them was the revelation that a majority of respondents took a pro-life position on abortion; they would restrict it to, at most, the rare cases when pregnancy threatens the life of the mother or is the result of sexual assault.
Along similar lines, Kate Michelman of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League laments that her organization's membership numbers have dropped since 1992. She attributes the decline to complacency among abortion proponents, who had an ally in the White House for eight years.
That's one possible explanation. And it's also possible that support for abortion among incoming college freshman has declined over the years because the kids do not remember a time when it was legally restricted. (In contrast, the average age of NARAL's membership is 55.)
I have a different theory, though. I believe that American women, as well as young people in general, have seen over the last 28 years that abortion just hasn't lived up the the promises of its proponents. Abortion has not liberated women, and never will. How could it, when it does nothing to address the problems facing pregnant women? Letting loose abortion upon the populace hasn't stopped women from getting pregnant when they don't wish to be; it hasn't stopped employers from discriminating against mothers; it hasn't kept irresponsible fathers from abandoning their children; it hasn't reduced the sometimes unbearable social pressures that pregnant women face. Abortion cannot heal; it can only destroy.
Roughly 25 million American women have aborted since Roe v. Wade -- many of them more than once. Most had family and/or peers telling them that they really had no other choice, under the circumstances. These women faced environments so hostile to women and children that they believed the best outcome they were entitled to was the destruction of their young. And people who call themselves pro-woman use those decidedly anti-woman circumstances as an excuse for the destruction to continue!
An unknown and unknowable number of women have died from so-called "safe" legal abortions. Of the ones that have been uncovered, most of the dead women were members of racial minorities. For that matter, a highly disproportionate number of black and Hispanic women obtain abortions -- black women are 3 times more likely than white women to abort, and Hispanic women are about twice as likely. Unfortunately, abortion advocacy groups consistently lobby against regulatory efforts to make the practice of abortion safer -- although individual pro-choicers generally express support for such regulations.
Maybe support for abortion is waning simply because more and more people see that this is not progress for women.
Take a look at that survey again. Note that women who oppose abortion still agree with feminist goals of equal pay, equal opportunities for women in employment and education, and so on. We don't want to go back to some dark yesteryear where women had no control over their lives. We want to go forward to a world where women are accepted on truly equal terms and do not feel the need to destroy our offspring in order to fit into a society run by and for men.
On the contrary, it's the abortion advocates who look reactionary and backwards by continuing to cling to the notion that pregnant women are "less equal" than non-pregnant ones. Kate Michelman of NARAL once said, "We have to remind people that abortion is the guarantor of a woman's... right to participate fully in the social and political life of society." A society for which abortion is the admission price isn't worth participating in!
Pro-life feminism is the future because it promises to expand, rather than contract, the circle of humanity. It promises truly equal human rights for all human beings, not just those deemed worthy by the powerful. That spirit places pro-life feminism in harmony with all other movements for social progress.
Last modified January 27, 2001.