Pro-woman and Pro-life: Just my cup of tea!

Despite what many feminists may claim being pro-life does not automatically disqualify you from being a feminist. In fact many of the first women to fight for women's suffrage and better education were pro-life.  Mary Wollstonecraft is a case in point. She wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a cutting edge book in its day that argued that women should receive the same education as men (rather than be trained in husband hunting) because both men and women are creatures of reason and have the same human dignity. She also argued that men and women should share parental responsibility and that abortion was morally wrong. In her own words:

"Women becoming, consequently, weaker, in mind and body, than they ought to be, were one of the grand ends of their being taken into account, that of bearing and nursing children, have not sufficient strength to discharge the first duty of a mother; and sacrificing to lasciviousness the parental affection, that ennobles instinct, either destroy the embryo in the womb, or cast it off when born. Nature in everything demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom do so with impunity."

Inspired by Wollstonecraft's example we should strive to look for solutions to unwanted pregnancies that respect the woman and the unborn. It shouldn't be either or.

To learn more about pro-life feminism go to:

http://www.feministsforlife.org/index.htm

Alice x