I am starting this thread to deal with the myth that all feminists are pro-abortion. I will try and post regularly the stories of women who rose in influence in the movement and took a strong stand against abortion. Please post any other pro-life feminist stories you may find!
Graciela Olivarez was a high school dropout who became the first Mexican American woman graduate of Notre Dame Law School, and the highest-ranking Hispanic woman in President Jimmy Carter's administration. Along with Betty Friedan, she was a charter member of NOW, which was founded in 1966 to protest a federal ruling which upheld sex-segregated ads. But that was before NOW supported abortion. Olivarez called upon anyone who considered the unborn child "a mass of cells" to witness an abortion procedure, as she had done, and before Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, she detailed the harms of making abortion more accessible:
"Advocacy by women for legalized abortion on a national scale is so anti-women's liberation that it flies in the face of what some of us are trying to accomplish through the women's movement - namely, equality - equality means an equal sharing of responsibilities by and as men and women....What kind of future do we...have to look forward to if men are excused either morally or legally from their responsibility for participation in the creation of life...?
"To talk about the "wanted" and the "unwanted" child smacks too much of bigotry and prejudice. Many of us have experienced the sting of being "unwanted" by certain segments of our society....
"I am not impressed or persuaded by those who express concern for the low-income woman who may find herself carrying an unplanned pregnancy and for the future of the unplanned child...because the fact remains that in this affluent nation of ours, pregnant cattle and horses receive better health care than pregnant poor women. The poor cry out for justice and we respond with legalized abortion."
Graciela Olivarez was a high school dropout who became the first Mexican American woman graduate of Notre Dame Law School, and the highest-ranking Hispanic woman in President Jimmy Carter's administration. Along with Betty Friedan, she was a charter member of NOW, which was founded in 1966 to protest a federal ruling which upheld sex-segregated ads. But that was before NOW supported abortion. Olivarez called upon anyone who considered the unborn child "a mass of cells" to witness an abortion procedure, as she had done, and before Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, she detailed the harms of making abortion more accessible:
"Advocacy by women for legalized abortion on a national scale is so anti-women's liberation that it flies in the face of what some of us are trying to accomplish through the women's movement - namely, equality - equality means an equal sharing of responsibilities by and as men and women....What kind of future do we...have to look forward to if men are excused either morally or legally from their responsibility for participation in the creation of life...?
"To talk about the "wanted" and the "unwanted" child smacks too much of bigotry and prejudice. Many of us have experienced the sting of being "unwanted" by certain segments of our society....
"I am not impressed or persuaded by those who express concern for the low-income woman who may find herself carrying an unplanned pregnancy and for the future of the unplanned child...because the fact remains that in this affluent nation of ours, pregnant cattle and horses receive better health care than pregnant poor women. The poor cry out for justice and we respond with legalized abortion."
