pro-life

[mahogany]

This was a comment that I wrote in response to a post about how the religious right was harming the pro-life movement. I am reposting here because it sums up my views on the issue:

I agree that judgemental pro-lifers are not helping, but I think the primary reason that the pro-life message is failing is that we (and I include myself in this because I have yet to come up with a good solution, and thus I too am failing women), as pro-lifers have failed to address the issues of genuine equality that women still face in the workplace; in the school place; in their family lives. Women are still vulnerable to sexual attacks. We have yet to address the fact that it is women who assume all of the responsibility of bringing a child to term. In some cases (cesarean, stretch marks), they bear the scars afterward. Any health complications arising from the pregnancy fall on the woman. In the case of teens, there is still the social stigma associated with teen pregnancy. The woman bears this. And I'm just talking about cases of pregnancy where the sex was consensual. I don't even need to go into the problems of rape and incest to show that the pro-life movement has work to do.

Abortion gives the illusion of a solution to these problems. As pro-lifers, we believe that this is not a solution. This is not an answer, but many people accept it as a panacea. This, I believe, is the real reason that the pro-life message is failing. Abortion has not made life any better for women. It has not solved their problems, but you know what? Neither have we! As feminists and pro-lifers, we need to come up with better answers than just, "Oh, you don't want the baby? Give it up for adoption." That's no more a panacea than abortion.

Comments

[nightynight.livejournal.com]

I think you are right, primarily because the pro-choice movement discusses all of these matters of inequality. So pro-life not discussing equality or the rights of women (I'm not talking 'this is my body' rights, I'm talking equality in the home rights, and the undisputed fact that women who have children absolutely earn less than their male counterparts no matter what) makes it seem like pro-life treats reasons for abortion in a dismissive manner when in my experience, in talking with friends who have had abortions, it was DEFINITELY a hard decision and it was DEFINITELY because it felt like there was no other option. Where was pro-life when the national daycare program was summarily dumped when Harper was elected? We would have seen pro-life AND pro-choice women marching in the streets TOGETHER. If anyone had bothered to march. I don't know when I'll stop being angry that Harper killed national daycare. It's a complete disgrace that neither pro-life nor pro-choice made any noise when that happened. There are issues of equality that touch ALL WOMEN.

As you know I am learning a lot about adoption. If we can for the sake of discussion set aside the matter of they physical effects of bearing a child, I'd like to say that my observation about adoption is that it appears to be as gut-wrenching and terrifying a process for many families and women. BUT. I think it might be a more POSSIBLE-SEEMING option if people understood all that adoption entails and what to expect from that experience. I personally think that if adoption functioned differently, i.e. effectively, and in a way that allowed our culture to discuss adoption, we truly would see more children placed in loving homes. I've been so surprised to encounter so much adoption-stigma. It's rampant. It's unbelievable how offhandedly people reject this notion. "oh well then you're raising someone else's kid and you don't know what you're going to get". Pardon? Am I missing something, or do we NEVER know "what" we're going to "get"? The way children are objectified when adoption is discussed is almost as bad as all the messages I got recommending I end my marriage when we encountered the challenge we are now facing together.



.