The insidious censorship of pro-life women

February 16, 2005

The pro-abortion lobby wants to make pro-life women invisible, writes Selena Ewing.

When it comes to abortion, women are on the move. They are writing, talking, agitating for change. Women who have had abortions, women who are mothers and women who are not, working women, academics, students - many different kinds of women think society can and should offer more than abortion.

They are pro-life women, challenging the status quo. And they're not having aloof discussions about other women. It's about us women.

Yet pro-abortion commentators continue to push the lie that only men want an abortion debate, and that women uniformly support abortion. Why? Why do they want pro-life women to be invisible?

Perhaps they can't believe that women might question abortion. Perhaps they think these women are simply puppets. Perhaps it's ignorance.

But most likely, it's because the lie suits the pro-abortion agenda. The strategy is a form of emotional blackmail. It suggests that to stand in solidarity with other women, we must support abortion as a private decision, as a woman's choice. To help women, we must abandon them to their desperate "free choices". To fit women into society, we must surgically restructure their bodies.

The paradox is that while "churchmen" and male politicians are ordered to stay out of women's lives, the aim is in fact to secure a state-funded surgical intervention.

Here's another lie: pro-lifers think women have abortions frivolously, while pro-abortion women know that the decision is an agonising one. This slur is repeatedly published in opinion columns - and often in the same breath the pro-choice writer will claim that this agonising decision has no long-term effect. It's as incredible as it is untrue. A pro-life woman knows the pain and grief of the decision and the years afterwards, sometimes because she's been there herself, or because she's worked with grieving women, or simply because it's intuitively true.

Here's a novel idea. Those who call themselves pro-choice should be true to their name.

And more emotional blackmail - that women need safe, legal abortion or they'll die at the hands of backyard butchers. It's the ultimate pro-abortion conversation-stopper, albeit based on a misunderstanding of medical history. The conversation stops here, yet this is where conversation should begin.

Why is it assumed that women will, en masse, break the law and submit to risky procedures when pregnant? The answer: if they do it's because they're desperate, trapped. The most powerful pro-choice argument - the backyard abortion - belies the phoney rhetoric of "choice".

The pro-choice answer to this desperation is abortion on demand, relieving the woman of her children. The pro-life answer is structural change, refusing to choose between women and children. Pro-life women tend to set up pregnancy support centres. Pro-abortion women tend to set up abortion clinics.

Yet we hear that it's only men who don't like abortion - men want to control women, send them back to the kitchen.

A divisive and harmful strategy of traditional feminism has been to pit women against men as though enemies. The same old tactic is being played out now. The effect is to stifle the alternative woman's voice.

So here's the truth. Most women don't hate men, and most women don't like abortion. Some women may feel compelled to support abortion because it appears that women need it. If things were different, women would rather not have it at all. Idealistic? Perhaps.

But that's why we need to have a public discussion about more than just having abortions. We need to discuss what drives women to abortion, then we need to find solutions.

There is a new generation, young women who have watched many friends and sisters endure the torment of abortion. They are aware of the pressures of motherhood and the demands of the corporate world. They know abortion is a quick, cheap response to a desperate woman - but that its effects can be devastating.

These women want a debate and they want change. They don't want abortion - they want a world that accepts them and their bodies. They are part of a grassroots movement that has coalesced into Women's Forum Australia - an independent women's think tank that undertakes research, education and advocacy in a wide range of social, cultural, economic and health issues affecting women, including abortion. The membership is growing daily.

Here's a novel idea. Those who call themselves pro-choice should be true to their name. Make it realistic for every woman to choose to give birth if she so desires. Improve support for pregnant women and new mothers. Don't assume that an unintended pregnancy is the end of the world. Don't be satisfied with a community that is so often hostile to women with children. Don't let women have abortions they don't want.

Abortion is back in the news because it isn't going away. As long as so many women feel that abortion is their only choice, we have to talk about it. It's a fantastic opportunity to call for some real change for women, not to censor them. Censorship must stop so that a fruitful pro-woman debate can take place.

Selena Ewing is a research officer at the Southern Cross Bioethics Institute and a member of Women's Forum Australia.