Today is the 188th birthday of Susan B. Anthony, an early American feminist. She is best known as a suffragist, although she was an ardent activist in many areas of women's rights.

Anti-abortion feminism

Anthony had much to say about abortion, which she referred to on at least one occasion as "child murder." During Anthony's life, abortion in America was condemned by men -- who recognized the erstwhile mothers as the only guilty parties. In her publication The Revolution, Anthony wrote, "All the articles on this subject that I have read have been from men. They denounce women as alone guilty, and never include man in any plans for the remedy."

She once lamented, "Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!" This was a minority sentiment then, and all the moreso now. Eerily, modern feminists vigorously defend the "right" of a woman to undertake this burden of conscience, while devoting nary a word to the partners and parents who pressure women into abortions. The term they use, "pro-choice," is quite a misnomer, as many women who undergo abortions feel they have no choice at all.

In fact, as long as it is legal to perform this act of violence on a woman, those who feel her impending motherhood is not in their best interest will urge her to suffer it -- without conscience.

Especially egregious is the argument that even in the absence of other legal avenues to abortion, women who conceived as the result of rape should be "allowed" to abort. The raw truth is that an act of violence (abortion) can never heal another act of violence (rape). Claiming otherwise to rape survivors during their most vulnerable weeks following the attack is unforgivable, yet many politicians who claim they are pro-life have succumbed to this irrational but passionate argument.

Natural Allies

Anthony recognized that oppressed groups make good allies, on the principle that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Thus she also opposed slavery and supported voting rights for blacks. Speaking at a conference in 1859, she asked, "Where, under our Declaration of Independence, does the Saxon man get his power to deprive all women and Negroes of their inalienable rights?"

The modern feminists' movement and its obsession with "abortion rights" is puzzling, considering that unborn babies are another natural ally of women: both are historically victims of a society that has placed them in a position of lesser power. Women, being able to speak up for themselves, should feel sympathetically inclined to represent those who cannot. Anthony's friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton remarked in a letter, "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."

Yes, it really happens

The UCLA student group Live Action publishes The Advocate, a pro-life student newspaper that has made national news with its investigative reporting. Its undercover investigations have shown that the UCLA student health center offers pregnant students only one "choice," abortion, and that the local Planned Parenthood turns a blind eye to reports of statutory rape.

This is what legalized abortion has brought to American women. To the mainstream feminist movement, I have to say: Nice job. You really screwed this one up.

Resources
Feminists for Life of America