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Feminist arguments against abortion (Part 2)

Information: This article sets out some of the arguments pro-life feminists use against abortion. What is interesting about these arguments is that they are not concerned with arguing why abortion is morally wrong, or why the fetus should be regarded as a person (as many pro-lifers do). Instead they show how abortion is either contrary to basic feminist principles, or how the act can lead to the further oppression of women.

Abortion reinforces a male sexual ethic

The fact that 'female bodies come with wombs' (Callahan), means for a man sex is never going to be something that has long-term physical and emotional repercussions attached to it. Men can easily be sexually detached, uncommitted, and promiscuous, because they never need to fear that they might become pregnant as a result of a sexual encounter. Although there is the possibility that their partner might become pregnant, men can always walk away from the situation and choose not to deal the harsh reality of an unexpected pregnancy. Women, of course, cannot do this unless they decide to have an abortion (which is why many pro-choicers believe it allows them to regain control of a situation they might otherwise have had to succumb to).

Yet pro-life feminists, such as Sidney Callahan, believe that having an abortion to address the (inconvenient) consequences of a sexual encounter, is simply reinforcing a male sexual ethic:

'Traditionally, many men have been laggards in assuming parental responsibility and support for their children; ironically, ready abortion, often advocated as a response to male dereliction, legitimises male irresponsibility and pave the way for even more male detachment and lack of commitment... Permissive abortion, granted in the name of women's privacy and reproductive freedom, ratifies the view that pregnancies and children are a women's private individual responsibility.' (Callahan S., Abortion and the Sexual Agenda)

Callahan also argues that abortion does nothing to make men change the way they view sex, nor the way they regard or treat women; nor even does it lead them to want to become more responsible for the women they do impregnate. This is why in her article Abortion: Women's Rights... and Wrongs, Frederica Mathewes-Green argues that instead of abortion we need to work on bringing about a society in which all women are supported and respected; one where we see a return to sexual responsibility (which means avoiding sex in situations where a child cannot be welcomed, or being willing to be responsible for lives unintentionally conceived), and where continuing a pregnancy and raising a child is made less of a burden than it presently is.

Furthermore, in order to challenge the dominant male sexual ethic in a patriarchal society, women simply need to stop going down moral and medical pathways which affirm this (such as having abortions), as in the end this makes them more like men than anything else:

'A more male-orientated model of erotic or amative sexuality endorses sexual permissiveness without long-term commitment or reproductive focus... Abortion helps a woman's body be more like a man's.' (Callahan S., Abortion and the Sexual Agenda)

Abortion in some pro-life feminist literature has been compared to a Procrustean bed. In Ancient Greek mythology, Procrustes had an iron bed which he forced people to lie down on. When he found they were too long for the bed, he would cut off their limbs; and if too short, he would stretch them out on a rack to make them fit.

Procrustes trying to get Theseus to lie on his bed

Procrustes trying to get Theseus to lie on his bed (Source: www.mlahanas.de)

Many pro-life feminists believe abortion is a way of making women 'fit into' society so they can adopt the same casual and uncommitted view of sex and relationships as men:

'In a culture that treats pregnancy and childrearing as impediments, it surgically adapts the woman to fit in.'  (Mathewes-Green F., Abortion: Women's Rights...and Wrongs, www.feministsforlife.org)

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Abortion leads to the de-personalisation and further oppression of women

Pro-life advocates often talk about the immediate physical and psychological harm abortion does to women, but some believe the act can lead to even more damaging consequences than this. In her essay Procreation (Companion to Feminist Philosophy, Blackwell, 1998) Laura Shanner speculates on what could the logical outcome of the reproductive decisions women are making today. She suggests that if abortion is being used to ensure the reproduction of 'healthy, or "high quality"' offspring, then this could lead to more invasive medical interventions and greater 'management' of a woman's pregnancy in the future, especially if it will cost more for the state (or insurance companies) to foot the bill for the long-term medical care of offspring deemed to be outside 'the norm'.

The increasing management of a woman's pregnancy may also lead her baby be treated  more as a 'product' than a person, and her role reduced to that of 'producer'.

Shanner also believes that when women have abortions in the name of 'freedom of choice', that they may actually find the decisions they make about their pregnancy, their body and the fetus they are carrying in the future to be greatly reduced. The bottom line is this; the more doctors are allowed and able to 'control' and be involved with the reproductive process, the more women will become alienated from it. Also, the more it becomes possible to 'refine' the reproductive process (i.e. to ensure that only 'healthy' or 'normal' babies are born), the more there is the possibility that this process will continue to be streamlined over the course of time. This could mean that some women (say as a result of genetic, intelligence, or means testing), might be denied any involvement in the reproductive process, because they are deemed to be incapable of producing 'healthy' offspring:

'We risk pitting fertile against infertile women, women with social or economic advantages against disadvantaged women, and women who value motherhood against those who reject it.' (Shanner L., Procreation)

All this may result in women being further 'oppressed' rather than liberated; something which might not have happened were abortion on demand to become less available.

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