Can you be both pro-life and a feminist?

[eveglass]

Yes, that's right! It's time for another round of "debate Julie"! In today's Gazette, there was a letter to the editor by Mary Ann Davis, who says that "you cannot be pro-life and call yourself a feminist." She's referencing this article, in which Janet Bagnall states, "Feminism is about equality, about a woman's right to make her own choices in life, including whether to continue a pregnancy. Without that right, women lose control over their lives."

I'm conflicted about this one. Personally, I'm pro-choice and totally against the idea of telling a woman that she must carry a pregnancy to term. However, if you truly believe that life begins at conception (as I think most pro-lifers do), and that abortions at any stage of a pregnancy are equivalent to murder, I imagine that you could still be pro-life and a feminist. I imagine that there are still ways of supporting women both before the pregnancies have started (comprehensive sex ed, free birth control pills and condoms, etc.) and after their pregnancies have ended (easy adoption services for women who would otherwise have aborted, affordable daycare and support networks for those who choose to keep the children, etc.).

So I'm not sure I agree that being pro-life necessarily excludes you from the feminist camp. Anyone want to take a side in the debate and tell me where I'm going wrong?

Comments

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

You can be "pro-life" and a feminist really easily: Just don't force your beliefs on other people. What you can't be is "pro-forced-pregnancy" and a feminist.

Most of the soi disant "pro-life" camp are really not pro-life at all. They don't care about the quality of life of either the mother or the baby. They don't care if the child is brought up in poverty or suffering. They don't care if the woman dies as a result of complications of the pregnancy.

If one is truly pro-life, one has to be respectful of both lives: the mother and the fetus. A position that is radically different from the current movement.

I'm pro leave people alone. It's up to the individual woman to make her own decision. What society *should* be doing is making it possible for every woman to make good choices. To do that would require making sure that there is widespread accurate sex education, that all methods of contraception are easily available (including the morning after pill -- because shit happens), that good-quality pre-natal care is available so women remain healthy during pregnancy and have healthy babies, that there is a humane adoption process (which protects both child and parents privacy and rights), and that abortion is available as and where needed.

I'd like to see an end to the ban on late term and "partial birth" abortions too -- because by that point in the pregnancy, if an abortion is needed it's because something's gone horribly wrong. In those cases, the situation needs to be dealt with -- forcing a woman to wait till term, or go through labour to deliver a dead or non-viable fetus is simply cruel. A quick and compassionate surgical solution is needed.

In an ideal world, there would be no unwanted pregnancies and no complications of pregnancy. As we don't yet live in an ideal world, we still need the option of abortion.

[eveglass.livejournal.com]

I'm pro leave people alone.

I think I'm in love with this sentence. As well as the paragraph that follows it.

[joane.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. All of it. And far more eloquently than I could frame.