Feminists Once Opposed Abortion (and Some Still Do) By Mrs Vera West

     This I found interesting; older Feminist once opposed abortion, seeing abortion as contrary to women’s rights.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-abortion_feminism#19th-century_feminists

“Feminist anti-abortion groups say they are continuing the tradition of 19th-century women’s rights activists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Victoria Woodhull, Elizabeth Blackwell, and Alice Paul who considered abortion to be an evil forced upon women by men. The newspaper, The Revolution, published by Susan B. Anthony and Stanton, carried letters, essays and editorials debating many issues of the day, including articles decrying “child murder” and “infanticide.” According to historians A. Kennedy and K. D. Mary, Alice Paul felt that abortion was the “ultimate exploitation of women” and worried about female babies being aborted. Kennedy and Mary also say that Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in the United States, became a doctor because of her passionate hatred for abortion.[16] By way of criticism, however, sociologists Nicole Beisel and Tamara Kay have written that white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) in the US were worried that continued abortions by their kind would endanger their position at the top of society’s hierarchy, especially fearing the influx of Irish Catholics, but also concerned about African Americans, and describe Anthony and Stanton as part of this reactionary racial stance.

In arguing for “voluntary motherhood]” (abstinence until children are wanted), Stanton said that the problem of abortion demonstrates the victimization of women by men who pass laws without women’s consent.[18] Woodhull and her sister argued that abortion clinics would go out of business if voluntary motherhood was widely practiced. A dispute about Anthony’s abortion views arose in 1989: anti-abortion feminists in the U.S. began using Anthony’s words and image to promote their anti-abortion cause. Scholars of 19th-century American feminism, as well as pro-choice activists, countered what they considered a co-opting of Anthony’s legacy as America’s most dedicated suffragist, saying that the anti-abortion activists are falsely attributing opinions to Anthony, and that it is misleading to apply 19th century arguments to the modern abortion debate.”

     This illustrates the opportunism of Feminism, and also that its core arguments are a clear social construction, fully capable of changing with the times. That which as once oppressive of men, now becomes a sacred right. It is hard to believe anything positive about feminism, given this relativity.

 

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Tuesday, 23 April 2024

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