Here's another reason why pro-life individuals are not inherently sexist. It's seemingly obvious but is almost completely ignored in the abortion debate. Tens of millions of women are pro-life. According to Gallup polling, as many as 41 percent of women identify as pro-life. That's almost half!
Did Anthony Brown and Mark Udall intend to convince voters that almost half of all American women are self-hating sexists, Hell-bent on waging war on... themselves? Regardless of their intentions, women saw through their illogical and downright dishonest allegations. Both candidates lost easily winnable races.
The dumb thing about that meme is that it's easily refutable.
If pro-lifers are so bent on controlling women's bodies, why don't they go after infertile women?
Why aren't they forcing women to GET pregnant?
And do women on the right like to be told what to do with their bodies? They're pretty big about reducing government interference.
So what motivates pro-life women to support criminalizing abortion?
Maybe it really does have to do with the belief that a fetus is a human being with equal rights.
Abortion supporters are often anxious to deflect that debate. They want an abortion debate, not a fetal rights debate.
And I can anticipate the next objection: Well pro-lifers don't want to debate bodily autonomy.
I can't speak for millions of pro-lifers, but I can say that I am not afraid to debate the issue of bodily autonomy.
My position with regard to abortion is this: the right to control one's body is not a license to kill.
Bodily autonomy entails bodily responsibility. Don't want to die of a coat hanger abortion? Don't have one. The person most responsible for preserving one's life is oneself. Desperation about one's personal situation does not entitle one to kill one's own child, nor does the result of self-inflicted death justify depriving the rights of millions of the most vulnerable human beings.
Feminists insist that we should trust women. But when the issue turns to criminalization of abortion, they change their tune. No longer can we trust women. We can only assume they're too stupid and irresponsible to do the rational thing. If women want to be trusted, they should take responsibility for their own lives and not blame others for their stupid choices. That's what bodily autonomy is about.
