Yesterday, on the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, CNN printed an op-ed by attorney Erika Bachiochi. She unwaveringly declared the truth that women can be pro-woman and pro-child (thus, pro-life) at the same time.
Ms. Bachiochi argues that abortion lays the sole responsibility for the life – or death – of a child at the feet of women. And, instead of making women equal, it only serves to demonstrate that they are treated anything but equal in abortion.
Abortion expects nothing more of men, nothing more of medicine, and nothing more of society at large. Abortion betrays women by having us believe that we must become like men — that is, not pregnant — to achieve parity with them, professionally, socially, educationally. And if we are poor, overwhelmed or abandoned by the child’s father, or if medical expenses would be too great for us or for our child, social “responsibility” requires us to rid ourselves of our own offspring.
Indeed, as Ms. Bachiochi asserts, feminist women are almost expected to dispense of their children if they don’t arrive at a convenient, well-planned out time. Liberal feminists inadvertently claim — through their absolute support of abortion — that the autonomy and independence of women lie at the bloody feet of their chopped up fetuses. This sounds disgusting and almost unspeakable, and yet it’s the reality of this “equal” world Roe has created.
Real feminism embraces life.
It’s clear that Ms. Bachiochi truly stands for pro-woman policies. And she rightly includes mothers in these policies. It is not — nor has it ever been — “pro-woman” to advocate for the death of a mother’s children. At the very moment conception (scientifically called fertilization) occurs, a woman transforms into that wonderful being we refer to as “mother.”
The true desire of women is to be allowed to be mothers; to be celebrated as mothers; to be seen as responsible when motherhood is chosen — even as a priority over an education or a career. Yes, those things can be important for women as well, but, they are not so important as to come at the cost of children murdered at the hands of their mothers.
Women also want to live in a society that, at the very same time, cherishes our shared, and indeed, wondrous capacity to bear new human life. We want to be respected for the work we do as mothers.
Ms. Bachiochi goes on to explain that pro-woman policies become pro-family policies that also enable men to spend more time with their children. This, too, should be supported by feminists everywhere. Children need an involved, responsible father, too, not just a mother.
Near the end of her op-ed, Ms. Bachioci explains almost perfectly what abortion has done to women. How many feminists have truly stopped to consider what abortion has turned women into?
When we belittle the developing child in the womb, a scientific reality that most pro-choice advocates have come to admit, we belittle and distort that child’s mother. We make her out to be one with property rights over her developing unborn child (much as husbands once had property rights over their wives).
We give her the inhumane (but for 42 years, constitutionally protected) right to decide the fate of another human being, of a vulnerable child — her child — to whom she properly owes an affirmative duty of care. We do all this rather than offering her the myriad familial and social supports she needs, whatever her situation, and cherishing her role in the miracle of human life.
You can finish reading the article for yourself here.
You can also find an article by Erika Bachioci, “Embodied Equality: Debunking Equal Protection Arguments for Abortion Rights,” here. It was printed in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy in 2011.
Editor’s Note: If you are a woman who is being pressured into having an abortion, please go here. You can also read (and share with a friend, if needed) 10 reasons not to have an abortion. For men who want to stop an abortion, please see this article. For more on exactly what abortion is, go here.
