Pro-life Feminists Speak Up!

Feminists For Life President, Serrin Foster, offers these remarks regarding this weekend's death march in Washington:

Women continue to die from legal and lethal abortion, just as they did before Roe vs. Wade. In 2003, California teen Holly Patterson, age 18, died after taking RU-486. Who will mourn her on Sunday? This march won't bring her back. Women are also rendered infertile and risk future miscarriages. A Montana woman, Lorraine Thul, had a hysterectomy after her uterus was nicked during an abortion in 2002. How will this march help Lorraine? Twenty-nine of 38 worldwide epidemiological studies show increased risk of breast cancer after an abortion, including 13 of 15 studies on American women. Will march organizers continue to deny medical research?

Another march co-sponsor, Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt, has said, "Roe v. Wade enabled women to participate in the social, financial and political life of this country." Abortion does not "enable" women. Women need housing, child care, health care that includes maternity benefits, maternity leave, the ability to telecommute, a living wage and a supportive family for themselves and their children. A woman needs and deserves support — both emotional and financial — from the father of the child. The lack of support and resources is what concerns women the most. Addressing these unmet needs must become our priority — not abortion.

I heard Serrin Foster give a very rousing lecture at the university when I was a student. She is always careful to raise some very challenging points that modern feminism avoids like the plague. The truth is that modern feminism is not feminism in truest sense. Foster goes on to suggest that the generational tide is beginning to sway:

63 percent of people aged 18 to 24 are pro-life, making them the most pro-life generation since those now aged 70 and over. It is instructional for those under age 31 to learn that attorney Sarah Weddington argued Roe on the basis that a woman could not complete her education if she were pregnant. Why not? Women are not suddenly stupid because they are pregnant or parenting. Education is essential to combat the feminization of poverty.

Millions of people marched on Washington last January bearing witness to life. We must continue to fight for human rights and for true respect for the dignity of women and children.