Is “pro-life” anti-woman?
A fallacious argument employed against pro-life advocates is that pro-lifers are really “anti-woman.”
In 2020, the March for Life—the annual gathering of hundreds of thousands of pro-life advocates in Washington, D.C.—chose as its theme “Life Empowers: Pro-Life is Pro-Woman.” The March is held each year to mark Roe’s anniversary, but in 2020, it was commemorating another historical landmark: the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote.
Language that characterizes pro-life advocacy as “anti-woman” often comes with a remarkable assumption: that women cannot be mothers and lead happy and successful lives. Of course, that conception is not only false; it’s also, ironically, anti-woman.
Consider Planned Parenthood of Montana v. State of Montana. In that case, Planned Parenthood sued after the Montana State Legislature adjusted the state’s long-standing health-and-safety protections designed to help protect women and unborn children.
Specifically, the legislature aimed to ensure that women would not be prescribed dangerous chemical abortion drugs without first being physically examined by a doctor. Additionally, expectant mothers would be offered an opportunity to see and hear an ultrasound of their child in the womb.
Pregnant women deserve health and safety—and they don’t forfeit that protection when they consider having an abortion. But it’s not Planned Parenthood standing up for them; it’s pro-lifers.
Pregnant women deserve health and safety—and they don’t forfeit that protection when they consider having an abortion. But it’s not Planned Parenthood standing up for them; it’s pro-lifers.
Pro-life for all of life
It is not just unborn children whose lives are in dire need of protection. Sadly, our culture often devalues the lives of the elderly and infirm as well.
In recent years, advocates for physician-assisted suicide have sought to expand access to the practice throughout the country. As in the abortion debate, activists use positive-sounding language to make their cause sound noble. “Physician-assisted suicide” becomes "death with dignity." However, the practice targets the vulnerable and the sick—and harms those who need competent and compassionate medical care and community services.
The Right to Committee of New Mexico is committed to fostering a culture of life where the dignity of all human beings is defended. The most vulnerable among us—the elderly, the terminally ill, the disabled, and the depressed—are worthy of life and equal protection under the law.
Life should be protected from conception to natural death.