Feminists and pro-lifers can join forces – and why they should

Washington D.C., Apr 22, 2017 / 05:12 am

On a Monday evening in Washington, D.C., well over a hundred women – and a few men too – gathered together to take up some of the most intense questions from earlier in 2017: Can feminists be pro-life? Can pro-life activists be feminists?

Self-described feminists from both sides of the abortion debate opened a panel discussion this month, continuing a conversation that started when pro-life participants were barred from formal co-sponsorship of the Women's March on Washington earlier this year.

While there were no easy answers from any of the participants, the women discussed what it means to be a feminist, what it truly means to be pro-life, and how pro-life activists and feminists can work together – even when they may not see eye-to-eye on abortion.

For Aimee Murphy, a pro-life activist and feminist, abortion is directly opposed to the stated aims of feminism.

"It is the ultimate in 'might makes right' mentality. It is contrary to nondiscrimination," she said, arguing that abortion discriminates on the basis of age, sex and ability. "If feminism is truly the support of the equality of human beings, then my question is actually: Is it possible to be pro-choice and feminist?"

Murphy is the founder and executive director of Rehumanize International – formerly known as Life Matters Journal – in Pittsburgh. The organization is an education and advocacy group dedicated to promoting a consistent ethic of life from conception to natural death.

Murphy and other panelists discussed whether one can be both pro-life and feminist during an April 10 event at The Catholic University of America. The panel was hosted by The Institute for Human Ecology and was formulated partially in response to backlash earlier this year on pro-life participation in the Women's March on Washington.

Also speaking were Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, founder and president of New Wave Feminists; Megan Klein-Hattori, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts; Robin Marty, pro-choice speaker, activist, and author; Pamela Merritt, co-founder and co-director of Reproaction, a pro-choice activist organization; and Cessilye Smith, from Doulas for Life.

Murphy told the crowd that her pro-life activism and her feminist upbringing in California were intrinsically linked. "I was a feminist before I was pro-life, and I'm honestly pro-life because I'm a feminist."

Her feminist views were challenged and evolved when she was 16: after being raped by an on-again, off-again boyfriend, she was afraid she was pregnant. Initially, she considered abortion, but then her assailant cornered her and told her she must have an abortion – and if she didn't, he might kill her and then himself.

After that conversation, Murphy said, "everything changed. I decided that I couldn't perpetuate the cycle of violence and oppression. I had to be better, I had to choose nonviolence."  She realized she had to oppose violent forms of oppression – including abortion.

"I realized that if all humans truly are equal, regardless of sex or race or any other circumstance, then that equality must be something inherent in us: part of our essence, not a consequence of circumstances," she commented.

The realization made her think more deeply about other aspects of feminism, such as the relationship between society's views of menstruation, pregnancy or childbirth and the marginalization of some groups of people, such as both women and the unborn.

"If the male body is seen as the norm, pregnancy is seen as a disease condition. If the male body is seen as the norm, those of us with wombs will continue to be marginalized."

These understandings, she said, have further influenced other, more stereotypically feminist positions such as paid family leave and empowering nonviolent birth choices.

Cessilye Smith of Doulas for Life emphasized that there are different varieties of feminism and voiced concern that by making the "barbaric procedure" of abortion "a pillar of feminism," there is a risk of forgetting the core tenet of feminism: equality.

"As pro-life feminists, we simply extend that equality to the fetus which is just at a different stage of human development," Smith said.

She added that a feminist perspective can also bring greater focus to the pro-life movement. "In order to be pro-life we need to be consistent, and with that consistency comes a genuine interest in all of humanity," she said, arguing that cuts to programs that support women facing unplanned pregnancies call into question "how 'pro-life' we really are."

Pro-choice activist Robin Marty said that while she supports the ability to choose abortion, she also wants to help remove obstacles for women who want to parent.

Marty added that she is willing to work with anyone – regardless of their position on abortion – to help create solutions like day care programs, housing for parents on campus, and improved welfare support so that women don't feel forced into having abortions.

Not all panelists agreed, however, that it was possible to be both a feminist and against abortion. Abortion advocate Pamela Merritt charged that the pro-life movement "seeks to deny women access to abortion, birth control, fertility treatments, give employers the right to deny coverage for the full spectrum of reproductive health care, and defund reproductive health care providers."

To her, these pro-life actions are contrary to the goals of feminism. "Feminism is an action agenda to secure the social, economic and political equality of women," Merritt argued. "It is possible to support, find comfort, and feel empowered by parts of feminism without being feminist. It is not possible to support the pro-life movement and be a feminist."

But Merritt still acknowledged that pro-life activists and feminists can find common ground. "We can still work together," she said, noting that she works with the Franciscan Sisters of Mary in Missouri to help provide aid to women in need.

For other members of the panel, the question was not whether feminism can include pro-life voices, but whether abortion is distracting from the work women can do together.

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"We can allow abortion to be the issue that polarizes and divides women, or not," said Professor Megan Klein-Hattori. While she believes that abortion is "central to mainstream feminist politics," she also granted that "feminists have always come from amazingly different standpoints."

Klein-Hattori lamented how polarization over abortion has overshadowed the "common roots" of feminists in seeking to address "the problematic conditions faced by women living in a system in which wage labor and individual achievement are placed in conflict with reproduction, motherhood, and nurturance."  

"There are many feminist politics that pro-choice and anti-abortion feminists share, ones that move us closer to having control over all elements of our lives, to being respected by loved ones and community, and to not being second-class citizens."

"Allowing abortion to polarize hurts these broader feminist politics," she stressed.

Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa of New Wave Feminists agreed. "Labels are killing us, labels are dividing us, labels are polarizing us," she said.

"It's not pro-choice when we feel we don't have a choice," she commented. "That a woman ever has to choose violence for her child is awful."

Instead, she hopes that women of all beliefs can work together to "make abortion unthinkable" and remove the economic and social obstacles to parenthood faced by many women with unplanned pregnancies. "There are so many places where we can work together," she said.