“Feminists” for Life

Feministing has covered the group Feminists for Life before; lots of bloggers have. But a reader sent in this video and I felt the need to comment. Not only because it pissed me off to high hell, but also because a question I’ve heard a lot as I’ve been speaking at college campuses for Women’s History Month is whether or not there is such a thing as a pro-life feminist.
But before I get to that question…this video. It features Feminists for Life speaker Karen Shablin speaking to a group of college students in a talk titled, “Don’t Underestimate Women.” Yet her speech has nothing to do with women as a group – it has to do with her. You see, Shablin regrets working with pro-choice groups in the past and the abortion she had as a young woman. She says that she “committed a grave wrong” and that the pain of her abortion is still with her. I feel for her, but I don’t think it’s fair to use regret over your choice as a reason to limit the choices of all other women. And really, what does that have to do with “underestimating women”? Frankly, it seems like it’s Shablin herself who underestimates women: she calls the decision to have an abortion “misguided,” and conflates her own beliefs with all women’s.
But this is par for the course for Feminists for Life – they refuse to believe that any woman would want to get an abortion. It’s because of a lack of economic choices! A man is pressuring her! There’s no mention of a woman maybe just not wanting to have a baby, which I’d argue is the most common reason there is for abortion.
What’s also so disturbing about this group – and there are many things, including the fact they think abortion should be illegal even in cases of incest, rape and the life of the woman – is that they are anti-birth control. What better way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and abortion than to support increased access to birth control? But Feminists for Life are stealthily and strategically ignoring something that actually help women. In fact, the only mentions of birth control on FFL’s site are those that deride it (like linking it to breast cancer) – they never discuss it as a way to prevent abortion. That’s not helping women, it’s hurting them.
And that’s where the question of ‘can a feminist be pro-life’ comes in. I believe that women can be personally pro-life and be feminists. I don’t think, however, that women who fight to limit other women’s reproductive choices are anywhere close to being feminist. What do you think?