February 19, 2010 9:47 AM
How abortion hurts women - a feminist reflects
How Abortion Hurts Women
Erika Bachiochi
Over the last three decades, the abortion debate has been characterized as the clashing of rights: the human rights of the unborn on the one hand and the reproductive rights of women on the other. This decades-long rhetorical deadlock has left a good number of Americans -- the great majority of whom understand that an individual human life is taken in each abortion -- personally opposed, yet unwilling to "impose their beliefs" on anyone else.The popularity of this so-called pro-choice position is due, in large measure, to the success abortion advocates have had in convincing Americans that abortion is a necessary precondition to women's well-being and equality. If you want to stand for women's progress, the line goes, then you have to stand for abortion. Indeed, in our current cultural milieu, to oppose abortion is to risk being called anti-woman -- and few, regardless of their sense of the moral wrongness of abortion, can withstand that accusation. "Personally opposed, but can't impose" seems to many the only pro-woman option.
I once numbered myself among the ranks of "personally opposed" pro-choicers, though I must admit to being more "pro-choice" than "personally opposed." I penned the following words during my junior year at Middlebury College while one of the leaders of our women's center: "The state's suppression of a woman's right to choose [was] simply a perpetuation of the patriarchal nature of our society.... To free women from [the] gender hierarchy, women must have a right to do what they please with their bodies."
The story of how I came to change my mind about abortion is rather lengthy, complicated by elements that are philosophical, religious, moral, psychological, and political. Suffice it to say, my unwavering support for abortion was based on my status as a feminist. Thus, central to my eventual opposition to abortion was the dual realization that abortion both harms women's well-being and that it is antithetical to a genuine feminism -- one that recognizes and celebrates the uniqueness of women as women.
In order to persuade the "personally opposed" pro-choicer like me, then, we must address this 1970s feminist fallacy that abortion is necessary for women's sexual equality and well-being. In point of fact, medical evidence, sociological data, and the lived experience of many women tell a very different story: Abortion harms women physically, psychologically, relationally, and culturally.
Here's the proof:
Read the entire article at Catholic News Agency
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Comments
Barbara,
We can never see enough information about the myriad of ways abortion hurts women, families and society. Thank you for being a tireless advocate for the unborn.
It would be interesting to find a study of young people in regards to how abortion affects their worldview. It must somehow affect the minds of two generations of abortion "survivors". Those who grew up in a home that was obviously pro-life compared to those that grew up in homes that realize they were totally "optional" offspring of their parents.
I sometimes wonder nowadays if my son with DS is a subconscious reminder to people that he was loved unconditionally from the get-go, as opposed to those people who had to pass certain tests to gain life.
It must have an affect. I don't know how you could study that though.
Posted by: kelly | February 19, 2010 11:57 AM
