bortion and Women's Rights: Unification of Pro-Life and Pro-Choice through Feminism

Claire Pomeroy

January 22, 1973 is a day that, in the eyes of many modern feminists, marked a giant step forward for women's rights. On this date the U.S. Supreme court announced its decision in Roe v. Wade, a verdict that set the precedent for all abortion cases that followed. For the first time, the court recognized that the constitutional right to privacy "is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy" (Roe v. Wade, 1973). It gave women agency in their reproductive choices; no longer were they forced to succumb to second rate citizenship as a housewife, a single mother, or a mother in poverty on account of pregnancy.

Was this decision really a step forward for women, or was it a step backwards? The abortion debate has polarized women, pitting them against each other in the binary of pro-choice and pro-life. This leads to a destructive division between women, one that is detrimental to the furthering of women's rights. How can we, as women, fight for our rights as women if we are so divided? Is there any way to unite these two apparently irreconcilable sides of the abortion debate?

A good starting place is to look at abortion from a feminist standpoint. Within feminism, the debate over abortion is not based in the morality of abortion or the integrity of people who support or are against abortion; it is about how abortion fits into our culture and how a women's choice to undergo or not undergo an abortion influences the status of women within our culture. Abortion has become a double-edged sword for women's rights. Without the right to choose women would be locked into their role as mothers, but being given the right to choose also acts to bypass the greater issues of patriarchy, such as the lack of support for women as mothers within our society. It is important, to further women's standing in today's society, that these two sides on the abortion debate become united through feminism.

Feminism is the advocacy of the rights of women based on the theory of equality of the sexes (Oxford English Dictionary). It is built on the principle that women have innate worth, inalienable rights, and valuable ideas and talents to contribute to society. Feminists fight for equality in every dimension of society, for both equal rights with men and equal respect.

Pro-choice feminism views the right to an abortion as integral to a women's right to sovereignty. Without abortion, women would unjustly be forced into motherhood. From a feminist standpoint, denying the right for women to choose to have an abortion forces them into submissive roles in society. Pregnancy works to condemn women to second class citizenship, since in our society, mothers are second class citizens. Once a woman becomes a mother, her resources to education, employment, and health care become severely limited.

Gaining the access to safe and legal abortions finally allowed a woman to have the basic right of controlling her own body. Prior to legal abortion, women had two options: to undergo an unsafe, illegal abortion that put their bodies at risk or to continue their pregnancy, even in situations that were disadvantageous to both the woman and the unborn fetus. Society has no right to control what happens to a person's body, and does not try to manage men's bodies in such a manner, so the right to abortion has equalized women by giving them the right to manage their own bodies.

Without legal abortions, underground unsafe abortions will still occur at the expense of a woman's health. Denying women the right to abortion serves to diminish women within society. There is the claim that fetus is a person and, by revoking a woman's right to chose abortion, society places more value on the fetus. From the pro-choice standpoint, the implication that an unborn fetus, which is unconscious and without thoughts, has rights equal to or superior to a woman's, serves only to diminish the recognition of women as living, breathing people who are able to consciously make their own decision about their pregnancy. Compulsory pregnancy laws also violate the traditional American ideals of individual rights and freedoms.

Pro-life groups, though often touted as anti-feminist, do not disagree with the need for women to become equals in society. Instead, the feminist pro-life groups see abortion as a mode used by patriarchal culture to keep women in submission by not adapting its structure to encompass mothers. Patriarchal culture has devised abortion as a way to manage pregnancy while maintaining its domineering structure.

The beginning of discrimination against women is based on the simple fact that they are not men. Women's bodies are defined by men through the male gaze that shapes the male dominated culture. Because of our lack of a penis, women are relegated to the periphery of society, unable to succeed. The fact that women are able to give birth only serves to continue to define women as the other. The way women can succeed is by adapting ourselves to the patriarchal society. An example of this is displayed through women's bodies. Socially, women's beauty is defined by thinness. Some sections of pro-life feminism argue that by having an abortion, women are succumbing to the social pressure to be thin; they are not embracing their womanhood. Instead of defining what a "woman" is by the standards of living as a woman, womanhood is defined by men. Pregnancy, one of the times when a woman feels most beautiful and in charge of her body and life, is discriminated against. In society, pregnancy is not considered beautiful and, through medical institutions, pregnancy has become considered to be a precarious condition that must be monitored and looked after. This serves to alienate women from their own feelings of beauty. By not embracing our bodies during pregnancy, we resort to defining ourselves in men's terms.

Not only does abortion serve to alienate women from identifying with what defines us as special, it also acts as a device that eludes the root of discrimination against women: patriarchal culture. Abortion serves as an easy escape from confronting the discrimination of women by taking the guise as fundamental to women's equality. The truth is that women's equality is still based in a man's world. In order to be equal, women must adopt the characteristics of men. To be on an equal level politically, socially and economically, women cannot become pregnant, because that is, quite obviously, something that men do not do. Our society is not made for women with children. There is a significant lack of good, reliable child care. Businesses do not have flexible hours which suit women with children. Women are still considered the primary care-givers to children, keeping the burden of responsibility for children off of men.

Instead of liberating women, abortion liberates men and society. "Abortion on demand liberates men who want sex without strings, promises, responsibility, or the rituals of romance" (Gargaro). Since abortion is an option, it enables employers to not have to make concessions to pregnant women and mothers. Abortion only serves to support the idea that childbearing is solely a job for a woman and, now more than ever, men are exempt from being involved. In the case of an unwanted child it is a woman's "duty to undergo an invasive procedure and an emotional trauma and so sort the situation out" (Greer, 95). Germaine Greer encapsulates the feminist pro-life reaction to the legalization of abortion:

"What women 'won' was the 'right' to undergo invasive procedures in order to terminate unwanted pregnancies, unwanted not just by them but by their parents, their sexual partners, the governments who would not support mothers, the employers who would not employ mothers, the landlords who would not accept tenants with children, the schools that would not accept students with children. Historically the only thing pro-abortion agitation achieve was to make an illiberal establishment [patriarchal culture] look far more feminist than it was" (Greer, 92).

What type of "right" does abortion allow? Most women choose abortion because they feel like they have no other option. How is this real choice? To continue to live happily in the patriarchal world, women submit themselves to the social structures that favor men. As society is structured today, women risk losing everything they have worked for by choosing to have a child. Childbearing, as an option for pregnancy, fits into this society in a marginalized way.

On the most basic level, the abortion issue is not really about abortion, but is about the value of women in society. Feminism is pro-woman rather than pro- or anti- abortion. This is where the pro-life and pro-choice groups can begin to relate to one another. But where can we go from here?

These two groups need to come together for the sake of equality for women. Instead of focusing their energy on protesting each other, they should unite their energy to change the structure of society. Women must work together to create a business world that supports mothers by petitioning for legislation that protects their right to work, even if they have children. Focusing energy on advocating for better, more reliable childcare would help to combat the male bias in business. We must start at the root of the problem, the lack of space for women within our society, and work from there.

Not all of the change can be made by altering the laws that govern our society. We must change our attitudes. Women must stop yielding to patriarchal society in order to succeed. We must demand from everyone around us the equality that we deserve, in both the public and private spheres. This includes pushing men to take initiative and responsibility within relationships to uphold their half of the duties. Women have moved into the workforce, so men must compensate by helping in the home. We must demand from men equal responsibility in caring for the children that they took equal part, and pleasure, in creating.

Only when this change is accomplished and when women and men do equally participate in all aspects of our society, will the abortion issue become actually about abortion within feminist thought. As for now, we have to establish ourselves as a powerful force. We must fight for the acceptance of motherhood in society, but until then we also work to keep abortion legal so that we can live without the fear that everything we have worked for, including the acceptance of motherhood and truly equal rights, could be taken away with one sexual mishap.

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