Challenging Feminist Orthodoxy
By Colleen Carroll Campbell
Posted: Friday, July 20, 2007


ARTICLE
St. Louis Post-Dispatch  
Publication Date: July 19, 2007

When Gov. Matt Blunt signed into law new regulations for Missouri abortion clinics this month, the critical response from abortion-rights groups highlighted a hotly contested question in today's abortion debate: Which side cares more about women?

For decades, the feminist establishment has declared the question a no-brainer. The right to abortion is the premier women's right, feminist leaders argue, so support for unfettered abortion access is the litmus test for concern for women. And restrictions on abortion or abortion providers -- such as the new provision in Missouri law that holds abortion clinics to the same health and safety standards as other outpatient surgical centers -- are, by definition, anti-woman.

This simplistic logic permeates much press coverage of abortion. The terms "women's rights" and "abortion rights" are used interchangeably. Pro-choice politicians are presumed to have a lock on the women's vote. And pro-lifers are depicted as fanatical about babies but indifferent to their mothers.

Like most conventional wisdom, these assumptions have grown stale. The claim that pro-choice advocates have a corner on compassion is belied by the reality of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers that offer women food, shelter, clothing and emotional support. These centers, for which state support was solidified under the new law, serve women abandoned by a society that considers pregnancy a woman's choice -- and a woman's problem.

As for women's views on abortion, they are mixed. The much-hyped "gender gap" in presidential politics has shrunk sharply in recent years, with pro-choice Sen. John Kerry winning the women's vote over pro-life President Bush by only three percentage points in 2004. Polls show that women feel more strongly than men about abortion but also are more divided.

And their views are not static. A new study from Overbrook Research found that the share of Missouri women identifying themselves as "strongly pro-life" rose from 28 percent in 1992 to 37 percent in 2006, with the ranks of the "strongly pro-choice" shrinking from about a third to a quarter of Missouri women. This pro-life shift was even more pronounced among young women.

Women are beginning to question the feminist establishment's reduction of the abortion debate to a zero sum game that pits a mother's welfare against that of her unborn child. Although most feminists portray abortion as a liberating choice, groups such as Feminists for Life challenge this idea by noting that most women choose abortion because they lack resources and social support. Through lobbying and college outreach, Feminists for Life advocates for pregnant women's needs and urges women to refuse to choose between having a future and having a baby.

This pro-life, pro-woman message has attracted a strong following among young women who consider opposition to abortion a crucial component of defending women's dignity. Their views have precedent: Early American feminists such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton considered abortion a form of degradation too often pushed on women by men seeking to dodge responsibility.

That old story is painfully resonant for many women today, whose regrets over past abortions have led them to buck feminist orthodoxy on the issue. Although abortion-rights activists generally portray abortion as a routine medical procedure without moral import or lasting consequences, women in the Silent No More Awareness Campaign dispute that storyline with their own stories of post-abortion emotional trauma.

The feminist establishment has tended to dismiss these women as faux feminists or victims of patriarchal brain-washing. That explanation may comfort pro-choice feminists who see their ranks dwindling. But for a movement that styles itself as the mouthpiece of American women, establishment feminism's refusal to heed the growing chorus of women questioning abortion may prove a fatal mistake.

-- Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television host and St. Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is www.colleen-campbell.com.