~ Susan B. Anthony, quoted in The American Feminist, Spring 1998 ~
I just started noticing how the pro-abortion movement can’t stand this little quote of Mrs. Susan B! I know this was brought up by the FFL out a few years ago, but it is still not agreed on today and deserves more time in the spotlight I think. It’s about time we define the word ”feminist.” At least then we can decide to either be one or not.
“Susan B. Anthony championed the important role for women in civil life, and essential to her perspective was the recognition that abortion was oppressive and insulting to women,” said Jane Abraham, president of the SBA List. “She strongly opposed abortion.”
“Abraham added that Anthony’s approach to issues such as slavery and oppression was consistent with her vocal opposition to abortion.
The SBA List website quotes from Susan B. Anthony’s July 8, 1869 newspaper The Revolution , citing the following passage as an example of her pro-life convictions: “I deplore the horrible crime of child murder…We want prevention, not merely punishment.”
“No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from
suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed.
“It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death … but, oh, thrice guilty is he who…drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime,” Anthony warned.
Abraham said she believes it is important to continue Anthony’s fight.
“We are trying to faithfully and comprehensively promote Susan B. Anthony’s legacy by increasing the percentage of pro-life women in Congress and educating people about important pro-life issues,” Abraham said.
“We can celebrate the fact that in the last election, the number of pro-life women elected to Congress increased by more than 70 percent. We’re confident that our namesake would be very proud of this remarkable advancement for women and for the unborn,” she added.
According to Abraham, “Pro-abortion feminist groups like to say Susan B. Anthony would be ‘pro-choice’ if she were alive today, but her words speak for themselves.”
Feminists for Life (FFL) of America, a non-partisan, non-sectarian pro-life organization, is also working to inform the public about Anthony’s views through its College Outreach Program.”
“…is it surprising that today we have become so morally blind (for wickedness blinds) that we save the baby whales at great cost, and murder millions of unborn children?”
~ Alice von Hildebrand, The Privilege of Being a Woman, p.24 ~
THE AMERICAN FEMINIST®
From “The Freminst” part of the FFL
“A most monstrous crime”
There is, however, one thing these advocates don’t know about Anthony, something that might temper their adoration: Susan B. Anthony was pro-life.
How could a feminist be pro-life? Simple: Abortion hurts women. Anthony and her friends knew this, and in fact the feminist movement did not support abortion until the 1970s.
A hundred years ago Anthony wrote an essay in her publication, The Revolution, about the “horrible crime of child-murder.” She was considering specifically the tragedy of abortion within marriage, wherein a pregnant wife “destroys the little being, she thinks, before it lives.”
Anthony wanted to “eradicate this most monstrous crime” but feared that laws alone would not be sufficient: “We must reach the root of the evil and destroy it.”
Anthony wrote about this evil with passion: “Guilty? Yes, no matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; but oh! Thrice guilty is he who, for selfish gratification, heedless of her prayers, indifferent to her fate, drove her to the desperation which impels her to the crime.”
In response to the claim that Susan B. Anthony was against abortion, their was initially little response from the pro-choice side..I don’t think they knew what to make of it (as this post below of a frantic “feminist” displays. The best line, and most common I think at the time this article came out (2003), wasto say that Anthony was a sarcastic lady and only pro-choice women could get her humor…ha-ha. That’s some dark humor, that worries me that they “get” then.
We don’t joke about killing living, breathing babies. It’s not funny to anyone that truly embraces the essence of motherhood. Why are women afraid to BE WOMEN! How can they not see that abortion is more about the men in their lives and a society that tells them they must act a certain way and put up a front in the world. I think if any woman listens to her heart, she is sure what is right and knows she will regret a decision for abortion for the rest of her life, but weighs her odds and the current choices and decides “It can’t be worse than this, right now” But if we learned anything since, Roe v Wade, it’s that it does get worse for these women later. I’m in debate currently over whether they experience more pain after an abortion of mothers experience more pain after an adoption. I was leaning to their side, but now I think they are like comparing oranges to skyscrapers!
I really think women lived on an island with no judgement and no men. There would be NO abortions!
Now some responses below to the Susan B Quote from abortionists.
the response back in 2003, was usually like the first quote below, then rhetoric once again changed in the pro-abortion movement (who would of thought?
“The Feminist Majority, which supports abortion rights did not respond to requests for comment”
The website this convo was taken from is below…
Dear Amy,
Girl, I’m so freaked out about an article in my local paper. I don’t know where to even begin with some kind of rebuttal. Here’s the article:
“É Prospect and Connecticut women are buying a historic collection of suffragette artifacts to display. Not only did the courageous suffragettes help us as women to achieve the right to vote, but many of them also spoke out against the violence of abortion and its damage to women.
Dr. Charlotte Denman Lozier (1844-1870) was praised in her time for defending a young, pregnant woman, Catherine Fuller, and her pre-born child against abortion. Not only did she counsel her against this course of action but she also compassionately offered her services to help Fuller bear the child. Alice Paul, original author of the Egual Rights Amendment ERA, once said, “Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.” Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) stated that abortion is “murder” and called for a “remedy for such a crying evil.” Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) wrote an essay in her publication The Revolution about the “horrible crimes of child murder.” Anthony was addressing the subject when she wrote, “We want prevention, not merely punishment. We must reach the root of the evil and destroy it.” She spoke of the burden on the conscience of the woman who aborts her child.
Regarding men, Anthony reprimanded them, saying that they should be taught to respect women and be honestly devoted to their wives. Her article on “Marriage and Maternity” is a powerful one! It is a delight to read Susan B. Anthony’s words: “Sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them” There are many other pro-life feminists. I encourage readers to visit our office Resource Center for more information on pro-life feminism-yesterday and today.”
Amy, what do I say??? Also is what she said about our foremothers true? Did they really say those things about abortion??? I know what to say about the anti-choice feminism from Manifesta (great book) about how feminism is equality and taking away a women’s right to choice is not being equal whether you agree or not. But what else can I say!!! Help!
Thank you so much,
Erin
————————————–
Dear Erin,
I have recently received a few others notes just like yours. There is this semi-new group, Feminists for Life, and they tout Susan B. Anthony as their hero. My guess is that this group has been making a splash in the media and thus creating a buzz about feminist hypocrisy. Ugh! I think it’s impossible to apply their quotes from yesterday today - especially in regards to an issue that was at an entirely different stage. As I understand it, Susan B. Anthony and other suffragists did oppose abortion, but on the grounds that it was unsafe to the women and that it was being forced on them - something that feminists today would oppose, too. Our goal isn’t to force women to have abortions, but to leave it as an option should women want it. And when women do want it to ensure that it’s a safe procedure. I hope that helps and thanks for challenging this rhetoric.
Amy
Obviously, Feminists for Life have touched a nerve, and exposed the betrayal of the legacy of the early feminists.
Pro-Life feminists have consistently pointed to the opposition to abortion by 19th and early 20th century woman’s right advocates. A few months ago, a Feminists for Life member purchased Susan B. Anthony’s home and has put it in the care of FFLA for care and management, something that greatly irritates the writer of yesterday’s NYTimes op-ed that tries to reclaim Anthony:
This article below is crazy, in my opinion.
Desperately Seeking Susan
IT’S not fair, I know, but I’ve always had an issue with Susan B. Anthony. Clearly the B stood for killjoy; was there any greater drudge in American history? Even the wonders of springtime Paris could not distract her from her work. Breakfast in bed left her shuddering with guilt. She set foot on a beach for the first time at 67, attended her first football game a decade later. (The verdict? “They just take the ball and then fall down in heaps. It’s ridiculous.”) She gave spinsters a bad name. It came as no great surprise when taxi drivers tossed back the Susan B. Anthony dollars.
Like all healthy grudges, this one is entirely personal. Every morning the school bus carried me past Anthony’s birthplace in Adams, Mass.; it was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The green house at the bend in the road loomed as an official halfway point, the demarcation line between Captain Crunch and algebra. Nor did it help that Anthony’s portrait, firm-jawed and ferocious, hung in the catalog room of the town library. She may well have stood for emancipation, but from the child’s perspective, hers was the pinched, angular face of repression.
Now it seems that stalwart Sue has an issue, one that might surprise her. That two-story house, a rich but undistinguished piece of real estate perched on a desolate stretch of highway, was sold at auction in August. It belongs now to Carol Crossed, the founder of the New York State chapter of Feminists for Life. Ms. Crossed made the acquisition on behalf of the national anti-abortion organization, which will manage and care for the house.
It is not the first time that Anthony has found herself leading the charge on this vexed issue. Since 1992 an anti-abortion political action committee has been named for her. On billboards and elsewhere, Ms. Crossed’s group promises to continue her legacy. “Susan B. Anthony was a forward-thinking woman who would feel comfortable with the positions of Feminists for Life of New York,” asserts the organization. Which does rather raise the question: When exactly did Susan B. Anthony — who fought more tenaciously for women’s rights than anyone else in our history — cast her anti-abortion vote?
There is no question that she deplored the practice of abortion, as did every one of her colleagues in the suffrage movement. Feminists for Life cites an 1869 article in her newspaper denouncing “child murder,” labeling abortion “a most monstrous crime,” and advocating its end. “No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed,” blares the article. “It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death.”
What is generally not mentioned is that the essay argues against an anti-abortion law; its author did not believe legislation would resolve the issue of unwanted pregnancy. Also not mentioned is the vaporous textual trail. According to the editors of Anthony’s papers, the article is not hers.
In her personal life Anthony was clear in her conviction that women were not preordained to motherhood, that sometimes a woman and her womb might go their separate ways. A devoted aunt, she claimed to appreciate her colleagues’ offspring, some of whom even felt warmly toward her. But she had little patience for maternity. At best she was the ever-helpful friend who asks if you realize what you are in for just as you have vomited your way through your first trimester. At worst she was a ruthless scold.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s pregnancies were Anthony’s despair: how was it possible, she wailed, “that for a moment’s pleasure to herself or her husband, she should thus increase the load of cares under which she already groans”? She was equally indulgent toward Antoinette Brown Blackwell, one of the movement’s most gifted orators: “Now, Nette, not another baby, is my peremptory command.” Over and over she needled Stanton, galled that the suffragette dream team had “all given yourselves over to baby making and left poor brainless me to do battle alone.” Stanton was the mother of six — one of whom weighed more than 12 pounds at delivery — when she received those cheering words.
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Monday, November 10, 2008
By Matthew Hadro
Obama at Planned Parenthood event. (AP Photo)
“NARAL Pro-Choice America worked hard for our slate of pro-choice candidates across the country, including pro-choice Sen. Barack Obama, and that hard work resulted in the reaffirmation of our commitment to the values of freedom and privacy,” Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America said in a statement.
It’s not even close to over yet! It really is a great time to be a Christian in America today!
Does a woman who is pregnant really have a choice on campus? Or is she forced to choose between having a baby and sacrificing her education and career plans?
Do parents, who are keenly aware that their education has a direct impact on their ability to take care of their family, have the resources and support they need and deserve in order to complete their education?
Our questions began after a Feminists for Life board member revealed her pregnancy in college and said, “Without housing on campus for me and my baby, without on-site daycare, without maternity coverage in my health insurance, it sure doesn’t feel like I have much of a free choice.”
As she traveled to campuses across the country, FFL’s President Serrin Foster realized that she had never seen a visibly pregnant student-or faculty member. In response, FFL held our first Pregnancy Resource Forum in 1997. After moderating Pregnancy Resource Forums for more than a decade, Foster knew this was not an isolated problem.
We wondered, what would student leaders from Ivy League, top state, private and religious universities and colleges, activists who were not in a crisis situation, find out about resources on their campuses?
In order to determine what students perceived about their schools’ resources and support for pregnant and parenting students, Feminists for Life launched its first-ever nationwide Pregnancy Resources SurveySM in the fall of 2007.
The students’ revealing answers to our comprehensive study are unveiled in Feminists for Life’s groundbreaking study, Perception is Reality.
The results of this study shine a new light on the perceived (and likely real) lack of resources, policies, communications and central location to find help on their campuses.
Feminists for Life is committed to continuing to help administrators and college students evaluate their campuses and work toward new solutions. If you are a college or university administrator or a student and would like to participate in FFL’s ongoing survey of campus leaders, please contact FFL’s College Outreach Coordinator at coordinator@ffloncampus.org.
In response to the overwhelming perception that colleges and universities lack resources to support pregnant and parenting students, Feminists for Life invites student activists to hold their first annual Rally for ResourcesSM on their campus this year.
On behalf of those who too often feel they are forced to choose,
thank you for helping us help pregnant and parenting students complete their education.
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I am a girl just trying to follow the path God has for me. I'm a daughter, sister, and recent birth mom of a beautiful baby girl who is was adopted into a wonderful family. Lately, I have a lot of spare time and I spend most of it trying to make sense of things through writing. I graduated college in 2005 with a degree in Child Development Psychology and Theology (which prepares you for so many jobs..) I hope to be a writer someday, but my grammar and spelling still need a lot of work! ...read more
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