Why Abortion is Not a Feminist Issue

Abortion is hailed as one of Feminism’s greatest triumphs. While I have always been pro-choice and believe abortion must be legal worldwide (as should prostitution), I see this as having little to do with Feminism. Those who are pro-life and who believe abortion should be totally illegal are usually either religious extremists, or simply lack the knowledge that making abortion illegal is more harmful to the mother and the foetus. Abortion being made legal was about classical liberal humanitarian values, not Feminism. Plus, many of the early Western women’s pioneers (so-called first wave feminists) were anti-abortion.

Facts about unsafe abortion:
➤ https://www.who.int/news/item/28-09-2017-worldwide-an-estimated-25-million-unsafe-abortions-occur-each-year
➤ https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion
➤ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2709326/
➤ https://www.publichealth.com.ng/unsafe-abortion-definition-dangers-barriers-to-safe-abortion/

Roe vs Wade:
➤ https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/roe-versus-wade-decided-by-a-majority-republican-nominated-court.html
➤ https://www.findlaw.com/healthcare/patient-rights/how-did-abortion-become-legal.html

Abortion in the UK:
➤ http://www.reproductivereview.org/images/uploads/Britains_abortion_law.pdf
➤ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/87/contents
➤ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2598187/

Larry Lader, the man responsible for US Feminists adopting abortion as part of their strategy (some articles are written from a pro-life perspective but they still explain Lader’s contribution):
➤ https://www.iowansforlife.org/2020/10/a-founders-vision/
➤ https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/10/nyregion/10lader.html
➤ https://gript.ie/how-one-man-sold-the-feminist-movement-on-abortion/
➤ https://www.liveaction.org/news/men-hijacked-womens-movement-benefit/

Contraception in the UK:
➤ https://navigator.health.org.uk/theme/nhs-family-planning-act-and-abortion-act

The team that invented the birth control pill:
➤ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-team-that-invented-the-birth-control-pill/380684/
➤ Carl Djerrasi: http://scihi.org/carl-djerassi-oral-contraceptive-pill/
➤ Gregory Goodwin Pincus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Goodwin_Pincus
➤ Margaret Sander: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1619462/
➤ Frank Colton: https://www.invent.org/inductees/frank-b-colton

Anti-abortion feminists:
➤ https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2015/01/07/feminist-case-against-abortion-pro-life-roots-womens-movement
➤ https://www.feministsforlife.org/about-us/
➤ https://feministsforlife.org/-taf/2007/spring-2007.pdf
➤ https://unherd.com/2021/12/the-feminist-case-against-abortion/
➤ https://clinicquotes.com/mary-wollstonecraft-on-abortion/
➤ https://time.com/4093214/suffragettes-abortion/
➤ https://www.genevaschool.org/wp-content/uploads/Pro-Life-is-Pro-Woman_-A-New-Feminism-for-a-Changing-World.pdf
➤ https://humandefense.com/the-original-feminists-were-pro-life/

Women more likely to be anti-abortion than men in the UK:
➤ https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-lay-scientist/2014/apr/30/why-are-women-more-opposed-to-abortion
➤ Full study: http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/y4asheswh1/YG-Archives-Pol-ST-results-13-150112.pdf

➤ US Conservative women against abortion: https://medium.com/the-radical-center/conservative-women-not-men-are-the-backbone-of-anti-abortion-sentiment-6ab402d6a86