Feminism and Abortion

In this piece, I pointed out three things. First, the current crop of feminist leaders, in near unison, hate Sarah Palin. Second, they hate her because she holds the exact opposite position on abortion. Third, the issue of abortion as a feminist ideal is one that the current crop of leaders made a rallying cry. If you look at the history of feminism, the original leaders, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Emma Goldman, etc., were all in near unison against abortion. Now, in my opinion, making the issue of abortion central to the feminist movement is quite peculiar. I don't think it is the least bit coincidental that the issue of abortion is referred to by most feminists as "reproductive rights". Those against abortion aren't trying to take away a woman's right to reproduce, but rather to stop the process before it is completed.

In my understanding, feminism strives for equality of the sexes. Yet, abortion is a wholly unequal thing. A man can't have a baby let alone an abortion. Furthermore, abortion law, as it is currently written, makes the entire issue totally unfair. If a father wants the baby to born and the mother wants an abortion, the father has little or no power to stop the mother from having that abortion. So, how exactly is this an equal rights issue when feminists want women to have rights that men can't, biologically, have?

Of course, feminists took on this issue because they feel that no man, woman, or government should be allowed to tell a woman what to do with their own bodies. Certainly, in the view of feminists, the government would never intrude on any activity a man did with their own body. Of course, this argument has all sorts of gray areas. An abortion involves a woman doing something to a whole different being that currently resides within their body. In any case, to me at least, this debate comes down much more to issues of morality, values, and liberty, and not the issue of equality.

Yet, the feminist movement has in fact inserted this issue into their debate, and more so, feminists have made the issue of choice a litmus test. That maybe why the current leaders of the movement are so threatened by Sarah Palin. Somewhere deep inside they may realize that they have trumped up this issue, and that a pro life woman can lead the movement just as well as them. The feminists fear Palin because as leader of the movement, should she win the Vice Presidency, she will inherently expose their injecting abortion in a place where it doesn't belong.