It Was Never About Saving Lives
Since 1973, Roe v. Wade has protected women's access to reproductive healthcare and medical abortions across all 50 states. As of 2022 this law has been overturned, and women are being denied their right to bodily autonomy and possibly life-saving procedures. This is only one way that patriarchy and paternalism still exist in the 21st century and how they target the historically marginalized female sex. This gender hierarchy is a core thread of the pro-life movement, influencing its agenda. At face value, pro-life arguments appear to be motivated by protecting unborn humans, but really it is a tool being used to infringe on women's constitutional rights. It is a weapon in the war against women, and unfortunately it has been relatively successful thus far.
Pro-life, But Only For The Unborn
The name ‘pro-life’ is deceiving. Members of this movement claim to advocate for every human being's right to life, but by failing to support pregnant women and their children it is evident that pro-life is only truly pro-life when the outcome reinforces a pre-existing personal agenda. Forcing women to keep undesired pregnancies brings unwanted children into unready households. This leaves an innumerable number of families in poverty because they lack the resources to provide for that child on their own. The results of a pro-life progressivism study run by Lauren Gilmore in 2011 suggest that “abortion attitudes do not have a significant effect on Generation Y attitudes towards government spending on healthcare and childcare.” (24). If pro-lifers are not inclined to contribute to welfare programs for impoverished families, particularly the children whose lives they advocate for, then how can they call themselves pro-life? Therefore, the foundation of their movement can't really be to acknowledge the value and protect the dignity of every human life. I suggest instead that a more fitting name would be pro-birth or even anti-choice. These names are much more harrowing, but also much more honest. Pro-life advocates have shown great concern for the lives of unborn children but continue to neglect the mother and child after birth.
More Than A Womb
The pro-life movement often dehumanizes women, painting us as promiscuous and impulsive in order to sell the idea that we are not capable of making our own decisions. Getting an abortion is on nobody’s bucket list but the misconception that women frequently and carelessly use abortions as birth control is harmful because it justifies paternalistic override. Refusing women the autonomy over their own bodies reduces them to reproductive vessels. Once dehumanized like this, women’s suffering can be more easily overlooked and dismissed as unimportant or exaggerated. Women’s individual aspirations, talents, and accomplishments become meaningless when pro-life laws perpetuate the idea that the possible life a fetus or embryo is more important than the life of the woman herself. Historically this dehumanization has created barriers in striving for gender equality and as Professor Eric Swank notes in his 2020 study, “pro-life activists seem to idealize the notion of a stay-at-home mother who can be a full-time caretaker, cook, and maid for other family members.” (132). This connection between pro-life and traditional gender roles reveals how patriarchal ideals have manifested in anti-abortion advocacy. Since pro-life activists are corrupted with misogyny, so too are their arguments.
It's also notable to mention that in no other circumstance is a person required to sustain another person’s life through the use of their own body, and against their consent. For example, doctors cannot force someone to donate their kidney even if it will save another person’s life. Women seeking abortions are not offered the same autonomy, in fact they are continuously forced to support the life of a developing child with their own body, without their consent by new anti-abortion laws in America. This reveals just some of the hypocrisy in the pro-life movement; it is not about saving lives, it is about controlling women.
The Future Is Up To Us
With experience, I have become increasingly aware of the many ways western culture attempts to subject women to patriarchy. There have been successes for women’s rights throughout history like the 19th Amendment and Roe v. Wade, but I fear society is regressing and promoting gender inequality again. The pro-life movement has mobilized the Dobbs decision which has dehumanized, criminalized, and patronized women by overturning Roe v. Wade. This is an attack on our human rights and a contribution to the ongoing legacy of patriarchy. Now you may not often engage in politics or fancy yourself a feminist, but when 21st century laws are undermining constitutional rights of freedom and equality for women we as a society cannot simply sit idly by and watch it happen. People defied patriarchy before 1973 to acknowledge women’s constitutional rights, and now in 2025 we must fight to defend them.
References
Gilmore, Lauren. Pro-Life Progressivism: The Effect of Abortion Attitudes on Attitudes towards Government Welfare Programs. 2014. University of Central Florida, Master of Arts Dissertation. University of Central Florida STARS, https://stars.library.ucf.edu/do/search/?
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