DeclinetoState
03-25-2006, 08:10 PM
This is from November of 2003, so it may have been posted here already, but it needs to be remembered.
By Cecelia M. Cody
Serrin Foster, President of Feminists for Life, recently visited the Bay Area to proclaim that being pro-life means being true to the founding principles of the feminist movement. She suggests several ways to help women facing problem pregnancies. Below is a synopsis of her talk.
The feminist movement was born more than two hundred years ago when Mary Wollstonecraft wrote "A Vindication of the Rights of Women." After decrying the sexual exploitation of women, she condemned those who would "either destroy the embryo in the womb, or cast it off when born." Shortly thereafter, abortion became illegal in Great Britain.
The feminists of the 19th century were also strongly opposed to abortion because of their belief in the worth of all humans. Like many women in developing countries today, they opposed abortion even though they were acutely aware of the damage done to women through constant child-bearing. They opposed abortion despite knowing that half of all children born died before the age of five. They knew that women had virtually no rights within the family or the political sphere.
But they did not believe abortion was the answer.
The early American feminists condemned abortion in the strongest possible terms. Anti-abortion laws enacted in the latter half of the 19th century were a result of advocacy efforts by feminists who worked together with the male-dominated medical profession and the mainstream media. The early feminists understood that, much like today, women resorted to abortion because they were abandoned or pressured by boyfriends, husbands and parents and lacked financial resources to have a baby on their own.
Ironically, the anti-abortion laws that early feminists worked so hard to enact to protect women and children were the very ones destroyed by the Roe v. Wade decision 100 years later - a decision hailed by the National Organization for Women (NOW) as the "emancipation of women."
With this drastic change, a highly visible faction of the women's movement abandoned the vision of the early feminists: a world where women would be accepted and respected as women. There are now 1.3 million surgical abortions per year in the United States. The Alan Guttmacher Institute (the research arm of Planned Parenthood) reports that women have abortions for two primary reasons: lack of financial resources and lack of emotional support.
http://www.calright2life.org/feministcase.pdf
By Cecelia M. Cody
Serrin Foster, President of Feminists for Life, recently visited the Bay Area to proclaim that being pro-life means being true to the founding principles of the feminist movement. She suggests several ways to help women facing problem pregnancies. Below is a synopsis of her talk.
The feminist movement was born more than two hundred years ago when Mary Wollstonecraft wrote "A Vindication of the Rights of Women." After decrying the sexual exploitation of women, she condemned those who would "either destroy the embryo in the womb, or cast it off when born." Shortly thereafter, abortion became illegal in Great Britain.
The feminists of the 19th century were also strongly opposed to abortion because of their belief in the worth of all humans. Like many women in developing countries today, they opposed abortion even though they were acutely aware of the damage done to women through constant child-bearing. They opposed abortion despite knowing that half of all children born died before the age of five. They knew that women had virtually no rights within the family or the political sphere.
But they did not believe abortion was the answer.
The early American feminists condemned abortion in the strongest possible terms. Anti-abortion laws enacted in the latter half of the 19th century were a result of advocacy efforts by feminists who worked together with the male-dominated medical profession and the mainstream media. The early feminists understood that, much like today, women resorted to abortion because they were abandoned or pressured by boyfriends, husbands and parents and lacked financial resources to have a baby on their own.
Ironically, the anti-abortion laws that early feminists worked so hard to enact to protect women and children were the very ones destroyed by the Roe v. Wade decision 100 years later - a decision hailed by the National Organization for Women (NOW) as the "emancipation of women."
With this drastic change, a highly visible faction of the women's movement abandoned the vision of the early feminists: a world where women would be accepted and respected as women. There are now 1.3 million surgical abortions per year in the United States. The Alan Guttmacher Institute (the research arm of Planned Parenthood) reports that women have abortions for two primary reasons: lack of financial resources and lack of emotional support.
http://www.calright2life.org/feministcase.pdf