Mattie Brinkerhoff: "When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society - so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged."
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Elizabeth Cady Stanton: "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."
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It's well-known that Susan B. Anthony was one of the very first feminists and women's suffragists. What isn't so well-known is the fact that Susan B. Anthony and many of her contemporaries in the fight for gender equity were fiercely opposed to abortion. They saw that abortion was not the answer to the problem of women being exploited. Rather, they saw it as a symptom of women being exploited--an acknowledgement that in a world hostile to women, the unique, precious contributions that women make to society through pregnancy and motherhood are seen as a burden. No one would seriously argue that women enjoy aborting, or do so on a whim. It is cruel to call abortion a "choice", when "My baby or my job" and "My baby or my education" are not real choices at all. The woman aborting is not enjoying some grand right; rather, she is sacrificing her child and her emotional well-being (and in some cases her physical well-being) in a desperate, violent attempt to escape from a situation where she sees no other options. The woman at the abortion clinic would not be there if she had support from society to feel confident carrying her child to term. To be a pro-life feminist is not only to believe that women deserve protection from violence even while they are residing in their mother's womb, but to demand that women be given true choices. We seek not just to eliminate abortion, but to eliminate the social conditions that create a demand for abortion. We seek a society in which motherhood is as celebrated a choice as abortion is in our current world; a society that does not view pregnancy as a "disease", something to be ashamed of, or a stumbling block to a person's advancement in society.
Have a Webpage? Join the Pro-Woman, Pro-Life Webring!
A webring is a way of joining together sites of the same theme, so that a webpage visitor can see similar sites simply by clicking a "Next" link on the page s/he's visiting. A webring called In Susan B. Anthony's Footsteps: Pro-Woman, Pro-Life! has been created to connect everyone who thought they were alone in being both supportive of women's rights and opposed to abortion. You don't have to be a woman to join the ring, just as you don't have to be a woman to support equality for women.
