ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, July 19, 2007

A new breed of women challenges feminist orthodoxy
By Colleen Carroll Campbell

When Gov. Matt Blunt signed into law new regulations for Missouri abortion
clinics this month, the critical response from abortion-rights groups
highlighted a hotly contested question in today's abortion debate: Which side
cares more about women?

For decades, the feminist establishment has declared the question a no-brainer.
The right to abortion is the premier women's right, feminist leaders argue, so
support for unfettered abortion access is the litmus test for concern for
women. And restrictions on abortion or abortion providers — such as the new
provision in Missouri law that holds abortion clinics to the same health and
safety standards as other outpatient surgical centers — are, by definition,
anti-woman.

This simplistic logic permeates much press coverage of abortion. The terms
"women's rights" and "abortion rights" are used interchangeably. Pro-choice
politicians are presumed to have a lock on the women's vote. And pro-lifers are
depicted as fanatical about babies but indifferent to their mothers.

Like most conventional wisdom, these assumptions have grown stale. The claim
that pro-choice advocates have a corner on compassion is belied by the reality
of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers that offer women food, shelter, clothing
and emotional support. These centers, for which state support was solidified
under the new law, serve women abandoned by a society that considers pregnancy
a woman's choice — and a woman's problem.

As for women's views on abortion, they are mixed. The much-hyped "gender gap"
in presidential politics has shrunk sharply in recent years, with pro-choice
Sen. John Kerry winning the women's vote over pro-life President Bush by only
three percentage points in 2004. Polls show that women feel more strongly than
men about abortion but also are more divided.

And their views are not static. A new study from Overbrook Research found that
the share of Missouri women identifying themselves as "strongly pro-life" rose
from 28 percent in 1992 to 37 percent in 2006, with the ranks of the "strongly
pro-choice" shrinking from about a third to a quarter of Missouri women. This
pro-life shift was even more pronounced among young women.

Women are beginning to question the feminist establishment's reduction of the
abortion debate to a zero sum game that pits a mother's welfare against that of
her unborn child. Although most feminists portray abortion as a liberating
choice, groups such as Feminists for Life challenge this idea by noting that
most women choose abortion because they lack resources and social support.
Through lobbying and college outreach, Feminists for Life advocates for
pregnant women's needs and urges women to refuse to choose between having a
future and having a baby.

This pro-life, pro-woman message has attracted a strong following among young
women who consider opposition to abortion a crucial component of defending
women's dignity. Their views have precedent: Early American feminists such as
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton considered abortion a form of
degradation too often pushed on women by men seeking to dodge responsibility.

That old story is painfully resonant for many women today, whose regrets over
past abortions have led them to buck feminist orthodoxy on the issue. Although
abortion-rights activists generally portray abortion as a routine medical
procedure without moral import or lasting consequences, women in the Silent No
More Awareness Campaign dispute that storyline with their own stories of
post-abortion emotional trauma.

The feminist establishment has tended to dismiss these women as faux feminists
or victims of patriarchal brain-washing. That explanation may comfort
pro-choice feminists who see their ranks dwindling. But for a movement that
styles itself as the mouthpiece of American women, establishment feminism's
refusal to heed the growing chorus of women questioning abortion may prove a
fatal mistake.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television host and St. Louis-based
fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.