From conservative Supreme Court appointments to new restrictions on federal Title X funding that led to Planned Parenthood’s partial defunding, the pro-life movement is winning under President Trump.
As a result, the abortion industry and its proponents are concerned, especially in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. Fear that their precious “right” is under attack spurs some to make hysterical claims grounded in nothing more than fearmongering.
In the latest example, a new poll on women, gender equality, and the upcoming election has activists, such as feminist writer Jill Filipovic, arguing that the supposedly sexist pro-life movement cares only about dominating females, their bodies, and their life plans. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In her Guardian piece on the subject, Filipovic writes:
A Supermajority/PerryUndem survey released this week divides respondents by their position on abortion, and then tracks their answers to 10 questions on gender equality more generally.
Do men make better political leaders than women? More than half of anti-abortion voters agreed. Do you want there to be equal numbers of men and women in positions of power in America? Fewer than half of abortion opponents said yes – compared with 80% of pro-choicers, who said they want women to share in power equally.
If women can’t decide for themselves when and whether to have children – if having sex can mean being forced into motherhood – women also won’t be able to decide our own futures.
I’m not buying any of this. Feminists like Filipovic, desperate to confirm their bias, would never accept any conclusion or poll that shows pro-life individuals to be anything other than anti-woman. In their eyes, opposing abortion automatically means you don’t want women to be successful in their pursuits, most especially when they seek positions of power. Yet, this is utter nonsense.
It’s true that when faced with the opportunity to vote for the first female president in our nation’s history in 2016, most pro-lifers decided to vote for her male opponent. Yet, this had nothing to do with underlying sexism and everything to do with a dislike of Hillary Clinton’s policies and persona. The Left, in their quest to make everything about gender, can’t accept this truth.
As a female — and one who didn’t vote for Clinton — I don’t believe there should be an exact 50/50, male and female split in political leadership, and that doesn’t make me somehow sexist. It might shock Filipovic, but I prefer to focus on policies rather than biology. The superficial makeup of legislative bodies, governorships, or the presidency itself means little to me. True equality isn’t about exactly equal numbers. Rather, it’s about equal opportunity.
This survey and Filipovic’s pile-on amount to an attempt to take those who hold pro-life views and declare that misogyny is at their foundation, all based on a cheap set of questions.
In reality, pro-life is pro-woman.
Yes, the pro-life movement is about saving unborn lives, but it is also a movement that says “Women, you can do it!” Pro-lifers insist pregnancy doesn’t have to mean an end to anything, whether that be an innocent child’s life or a female’s hopes and dreams. Meanwhile, the pro-abortion community says that an unexpected or unwanted pregnancy makes women wholly incapable. This is a lie that’s much more anti-woman than anything pro-lifers believe.
In this feminist era, it’s popular to reframe the abortion debate around misogyny and control. But it doesn’t take much to realize that standing up for the lives of the unborn — male and female alike — is the furthest thing from discrimination.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog and a columnist at Arc Digital.
