Feminists: Do you believe that it's possible to be a feminist and a pro-life individual at the same time?

Question

I took a Women's Studies class during my freshman year of college, and it was pretty much divided equally on this issue. I like to consider myself a feminist because I believe in equality for men and women, but I also believe that the life of an unborn child (or fetus, if you prefer the term) is more important than the rights of both men and women. Are people feminists because they define themselves that way, or are feminists defined by a certain system of beliefs? I do not mean to offend or discredit pro-choice people here; I just want to know what everyone thinks about this. Thank you in advance for your answers.

Answer 1

You can still be a feminist whilst being a pro-lifer. A feminist is someone vying for equality. You are valuing equality, equal rights for everybody, including unborn children.

However, radical feminists beleive that women are opressed because of her reproductive functions, and thus that you would be aiding this by deprivng the woman of her choice to control her reproductive functions. So you would not fit the criteria of a radical feminist.

Answer 2

I think a lot feminists would say that most societies, including modern, Western society with all the opportunities it affords women, place an unfair burden of responsibility on women for the care of children while giving men a bit of a pass. Women experiencing unplanned pregnancies are pressured to drop out of school, put career goals on the back burner, etc., while men in similar positions are encouraged to pursure their dreams as long as it involves bringing in money that will help care for the child.

Also, "pro-life" is a loaded term because the abortion debate has become so political. While most everyone wants to reduce the number of aborted pregnancies, there is plenty of disagreemnt over how to go about it. Pro-choice advocates might say it's just like we want to reduce alcoholism and impaired driving, but we don't go as far as outlawing alcohol (not recently) because that really infringes upon someone's rights (although they would also say abortion rights are far more important than alcohol rights).

Another issue to compare it to would be gay marriage: Most advocates of legalizing gay marriage find the idea quite comfortable, pleasant, and nonthreatening, while advocates of legalized abotion may cringe at the idea of the difficult and haunting decision to have one. It's really weird how people get put into these opposite camps on the issue of how best to prevent abortion.

Feminists, I know I didn't include everything. Please add more!!

Answer 3

I absolutely think that it is possible to be a feminist and pro-life. I would even venture to say that nearly everyone is pro-life. However, pro-life is not the same thing as anti-choice. No one (or hardly anyone) wants to kill an unborn child even those that are pro-choice, and really that isn't even the issue. The issue is whether women have the right to control their own reproduction (pro choice) as opposed to the government having control over a woman's body (anti choice, or as most people see it pro life). I want to be able to control my own body and make decisions about my reproduction, however, that doesn't necessarily mean that I would have an abortion. I think that people are feminists because they want equality for all people, and that is what makes them feminist, which would be defining themselves that way as well as having certain beliefs.

Answer 4

Seems to me you answered your own question. You believe in equal rights between men & women. That defines feminism, for most of us, anyway. Actually the term implies much more, but it's only a word to define a general idea. Being pro choice or pro life is another catagory altogether.
People tend to narrow meanings past any sense. For example, pro choice is exactly that - in favor of the mother to have the choice to have the baby or not. It does not necessarily mean pro abortion. I believe there are times an abortion is the least harmful option. (At that point, there are no good options) Each case needs very careful consideration. I think most of us can agree on that. Being pro choice, I am saying I don't have the right to judge you or make that decision for you. It is between you & your conscience, not mine.

Answer 5

Yes. The early feminists were all strongly against abortion. Women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote about abortion in the strongest possible terms of revulsion.

Answer 6

No, you can't. It is a woman's right to decide under all circumstances if and when she wants to have a child. It is HER life and HER body.

Answer 7

I've known quite a few.

Answer 8

No,femnists is to fight for the right for a normal place in society..it has noting to do with abortions..Abortions when being raped is another question..as both the child and the woman suffer..Rights of women aplly to themselves only.The womb is pat of their body..

Answer 9

I say to all feminists, renounce feminism and adopt humanism. fight for the rights of all humans and not just women's rights. show concern over and do something about all violence and not just violence against women.

There is so much concern about violence against women (none for men) when most of the murdered victims are men. In every society that I know of there is gender based discrimination. There is definitely a double standard in the justice system even in countries as democratic as Canada and the United States of America. For what a man goes to prison for decades upon conviction, a woman can get away with a few months of probabtion. The tables are turned the other way around in countries like Pakistan and Iran, where the justice system much like everything else discriminates against women. In my country of India, there are many train cars, many seats in buses for women only, the income taxes are lower for women, so many other outrageous laws that favour women, etc. In India, precious little baby girls are killed just because they are girls while the more educated families choose to abort them just because they are going to be girls while both practices are illegal. No one complaints that auto-insurance rates are much higher for men than for women. Try charging more to women and there will be mass protests and numerous lawsuits. A few weeks ago I heard on the news that 2 girls had won the legal battle against their school to join the boys’ team. A few minutes later I heard that some female firefighters had won their battle to have a separate change room from the male firefighters. Both verdicts are of Canada. They are certainly contradictory rulings. Besides no girl can ever join a boys’s team since if a girl joined the boys’ team it wouldn’t be a boys’ team anymore and vice versa. Also if women are allowed to participate in “men’s” events, then men should be allowed to participate in “women’s” events. Men are extremely happy to be around women but in the case of participating in sports events, this would be a tragedy for women. There is lots of outcry over how there aren’t enough women professors, politicians, etc. Women are free to run in this country. If not many want to or win, then not many do or win. They are free to do other professions as well. It’s interesting how no one complaints that most school teachers are women, that most models, most receptionists, most university students, etc are women. No one complaints that most of the military dead are men (if there are x men for every 1 woman in the military, then y military men die for every military woman that dies, where y >> x). There is lots of outcry over how women are underdiagnosed with heart disease when it’s the number one killer of women and no one complaints that men live on average about 6 years less than women no matter who is dying of what and when. There is lots of outcry about AIDS in women when more than 50% of the victims are male. I have never heard of any concern over men having the disease. It’s always AIDS in women, AIDS in children, or just AIDS. It’s never AIDS in men. Did any man on Titanic have any less of a right or desire to live than any woman or child on Titanic? If I was a man on Titanic, then I would probably be murdered since I would have done anything to fight for my life. When it comes to saving my life, any law preventing me from doing so would have to be broken and an attempt made to do what it takes to survive. Is it really any less sad for an innoncent man to die in a military or terrorist attack than for an innocent woman or an innocent child to die? There is lots of outcry over how male tennis players make more (less than 2 times more) money than female tennis players and yet there is no outcry that female models make many times more money than male models. There are lots of scholarships available only to females while I haven’t seen any available only to males. There is women’s day while there is no men’s day, etc. There are countless other examples. Most child custody cases are won by mothers. There is outcry how fields like physics and mathematics and computer science and engineering are dominated mostly by men when there is no such outcry over fields dominated by women. And there are so many more discriminations against both genders. Feminism will never seek or achieve gender equality for the name itself is biased towards one gender. Those who really want true equality should start another movement named humanism. I have listed more discrimination against men than women because the point that I am trying to make here is that gender based discrimination occurs not only against women but against men as well.

Answer 10

I myself would never have an abortion. However it s not my decision to make for anyone else.