A former pro-life activist writes an article for Alternet about her ideological shift, and proposes ways to reach those who are technically pro-choice, but don’t relate to traditional pro-choice talking points. She’s saying what a lot of people in the pro-choice movement have been arguing for decades: That reproductive freedom is about poverty; it’s about race and ethnicity; it’s about healthcare access; it’s about education; it’s as much about allowing access to abortion and birth control as it is about allowing women the right to give birth, when so many women in this country terminate pregnancies out of financial or social necessity. From her article:
If we want to prevent bringing unwanted or unsupported life into this world, birth control must be accessible to all; men and women alike need education about the necessities of birth control. Birth control, sex education, and factually correct abstinence-only programs are abortion issues.
Girls from conservative homes like mine do not need lectures about the shame of sex, but about the beauties and dangers of sex, and ways to avoid the dangers. They must learn to love their bodies, draw appropriate boundaries, and know what precautions to take when they are ready for sex. Hatred of women and women’s bodies in the Christian tradition are abortion issues.Women from all walks of life must make a living wage so they can support children when they are ready to have them. If two-thirds of all women who seek abortions say they cannot afford a child, improving economic conditions by providing viable job opportunities for both men and women should greatly decrease the number of abortions. Raising the minimum wage is an abortion issue.
Women everywhere must have affordable health care for themselves and their children, so they can bring healthy children into the world and keep them healthy. Affordable universal healthcare is an abortion issue.
Women must have access to quality daycare that will not cost more than they make at work. Government-subsidized child care is an abortion issue.
Women must have access to affordable education so they can compete for living-wage jobs, and so they can promise that same access to their children. Education-related government grants and loans are abortion issues.
Adoption must be demystified, shown to be a loving and generous choice, not abandonment. Adoption laws, adoption agency regulations and oversight, and attitudes about adoption are abortion issues.
To engage in productive dialogue about abortion, we must account for justice and equity; we must strive to make our country one where laws, practices, programs, and attitudes nurture women and allow them the opportunity to bring babies into the world when they can support them, provide them excellent healthcare, send them to college without putting themselves in massive debt, and promise them truthfully there are living-wage jobs waiting for them.
Come to think of it, if this isn’t a genuinely pro-life position, I don’t know what is.
She’s right. Pro-choice leaders — and in particular, pro-choice politicians — need to go on the offensive here, and make connections between conservative policies which victimize women (especially low-income women) and higher abortion rates.
Social conservatives are giving them a lot to work with. The religious right crusades for “decency” — and focuses almost all of their vitriol on women’s bodies. Anti-choicers illogically claim that they’re “protecting” women by forcing them to give birth against their will. Our conservative government turns a blind eye to sexual assualts in the military. They gut laws that help working women.
Let’s call these things what they are: Attacks on women. And let’s connect those attacks to the anti-choice policies which further serve to limit our human rights, give women fewer choices, and make it substantially more difficult for women to prevent unintended pregnancy and to carry wanted pregnancies to term.
thank you for sharing this! this is something i’ve been thinking about a lot lately. i’m firmly pro-choice, but i have a number of friends who are pro-life whose values are otherwise pretty close to mine — caring for the health and well-being of women and children, affordable health care, education, daycare, access to jobs, etc. and it’s always seemed so sad to me that instead of uniting on those issues, which would ultimately reduce abortion, we’re completely polarized over the argument of whether or not abortion should be legal. i absolutely think it should and must be legal, accessible and affordable to all women, no questions asked — but i would also love to see fewer women with unwanted preganancies that put them in a position where they have to make that choice. and to put energy into taking care of the women eventually will and who already do have children.
even if this woman is a minory in the pro-life movement, it’s so reassuring to read that at least some of them are thinking about this. it would be so wonderful to see more activism and collaboration happening along these lines and i think the results would be pleasing to both sides, regardless of whether abortion is legal or not.
This is the best summary of why I’m pro-choice… thanks for the link.