Since the passage of Roe v. Wade on Jan. 22, 1973, more than 50 million abortions have been performed in America. However, according to a recent Washington Post report, the country’s abortion rate is the lowest it has been since 1973 and I am so glad, because I am an anti-abortion feminist.
You may be thinking, “that’s impossible,” and critics on both sides of the political spectrum might agree. Many conservatives say feminism equates to supporting abortion, or at least condoning it. Many liberal critics view the anti-abortion movement as anti-woman and anti-feminist.
Although critics on both sides will disagree with me, I see the two causes of feminism and right-to-life as very similar. Like any call to justice, feminism and the right-to-life movement are both human rights issues. But there are some very key discrepancies when discussing these issues.
Before you start truly doubting that I am a feminist, let me assure you that I am. I’m pursuing a women’s and gender studies certificate and I would make the bra-burning myth a reality if I hadn’t spent so much money on those bras. But I digress.
My stance as an anti-abortion feminist is simple: I believe women can make whatever choice they want with their bodies, including and especially the choice to have sex. However, our actions have consequences, and if by choosing to have sex a woman becomes pregnant, she must deal with that consequence.
The choice should not be to kill a child. And that’s what pregnancy is — it’s a human life. It’s dangerous to assume otherwise. Trying to define when someone becomes a person — becomes a life — is similar to historical fallacies such as phrenology, slavery or the Three-Fifths Compromise, which all tried to define who is human and who is less-than. No one is less-than; everyone has equal value.
Now I’ll step off my soapbox and we can work together on a solution.
Pregnancy isn’t the problem that needs to be solved. Abortion is not the solution. Abortion is the means to an end of a variety of problems that tarnish our country.
We need to do a better job at taking care of the children in need that are already born. We need to educate people on safe sex. We need to aid struggling mothers and parents and secure them better benefits, especially in the workforce. We need to end the prevalent rape culture in our society that does result in some unwanted pregnancies.
All of these are dire problems, but abortion does not solve any of them. Babies killed by abortions are collateral damage from the continued existence of these issues, and that is unacceptable. Instead of focusing on fixing the other problems, we’ve created genocide of the innocent.
I’m not saying we should ban abortion without changing anything else, thus leaving thousands of women with children they cannot care for. I’m saying we need to fix the bigger picture. We need to improve education, health care, family resources, etc. If we improve these areas, maybe we can obliterate the demand for abortion and focus on other issues at hand, because this country has major flaws. Hopefully, one day, abortion won’t be one of them.
Erin Davoran is a sophomore studying journalism and a copy editor for The Post. Tell Erin your views on abortion at ed414911@ohiou.edu
This column originally appeared in print under the headline "Anti-abortion stance not necessarily anti-feminist"
