PRO-LIFE FEMINIST

https://bothlivesmatter.org/stories/bexs-story-i-am-a-pro-life-feminist

Abortion is a tool of male oppression. These words are not my own but I do subscribe to them when abortion is used not to save women’s lives but to control them. These words were penned by our feminist foremothers, Susan B. Antony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who put it quite eloquently when they said, when women have been treated for so long as property, it is degrading that they should treat their own children as chattels. 

First wave feminists were adamantly opposed to abortion, it was perceived as the ultimate exploitation of women. The very roots of the feminist movement are indeed pro-life. Abortion enables men who disrespect women to continue their objectification, to see them as play things that they can use and discard at their leisure without any accountability on the man’s part. There are women worldwide owed billions in unpaid child support as fatherhood is becoming more and more disconnected. Women pay the price when men are not taught, or do not face up to, their responsibilities.

To accept the pro-choice stance and feminism as a truism is a dangerous myth. Traditionally feminism has lent its voice to the oppressed and marginalised in society, obviously including but not confined to women, and rejects the use of force to control or destroy another human being. Feminism appeals for peace and speaks out against violence, yet abortion is a violent act. In order to terminate a pregnancy a heartbeat must be stopped, bones must be broken and organs must be ruptured. These uncomfortable and hard truths are contradictory to the feminist philosophy. 

Given that for so long women were dehumanised, seen as inferior and oppressed it seems bizarre that women should dehumanise the unborn. The oppressed should never become the oppressor. Our stance on abortion continues to be used as a litmus test for one’s leftist-feminist credentials. The pro-choice movement, which focuses on ‘my body, my life, my choice’ seems to have more in common with the Libertarian ultra-right-wing ideology of individualism, autonomy and free choice than it does with feminism which grew from a ideology which emphasises the protection of the weak, solidarity and community.