Weddington's Betrayal of Women
Serrin M. Foster
President
Feminists for Life of America
On the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, many will focus on the undeniable humanity of the unborn child now seen clearly by millions through sophisticated sonograms on Oprah as well as in Life and Newsweek cover stories.
Meanwhile, I will be reflecting on the impact of the choice made by attorney Sarah Weddington in 1973.
As her arguments for abortion before the Supreme Court made clear, Weddington saw the discrimination and other injustices faced by pregnant women. But she did not demand that these injustices be remedied. Instead, she demanded for women the “right” to submit to these injustices by destroying their pregnancies.
Weddington rightly pointed out the unmet needs of students: “…there are many schools where a woman is forced to quit if she becomes pregnant.” But Weddington didn’t argue against pregnancy discrimination or even for alternate solutions for a pregnant student.
Weddington did no better for women in the workplace. “In the matter of employment, she often is forced to quit at an early point in her pregnancy. She has no provision for maternity leave… She cannot get unemployment compensation under our laws, because the laws hold that she is not eligible for employment, being pregnant, and therefore is eligible for no unemployment compensation.”
For women with serious medical needs, she further noted: “There is no duty for employers to rehire women if they must drop out to carry a pregnancy to term. And, of course, this is especially hard on the many women in Texas who are heads of their own households and must provide for their already existing children.”
Weddington clearly saw the bind low-income women face when experiencing unplanned pregnancy: “At the same time, she can get no welfare to help her at a time when she has no unemployment compensation and she's not eligible for any help in getting a job to provide for herself.”
Weddington repeatedly said that women need “relief” from pregnancy, instead of arguing that women need relief from these injustices.
What if Weddington had used her legal acumen to challenge the system and address women’s needs?
By accepting pregnancy discrimination in school and workplace and the lack of support in society for pregnant women and parents, especially the poor, Weddington and the Supreme Court betrayed women and undermined the support women need and deserve.
Since then, millions of women have paid the price, struggling in school and the workplace without societal support. After all, when “it’s her body, it’s her choice,” it’s her problem.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of abortion in America, half of all abortions are performed on college-age women.
Since 1994, Feminists for Life has worked to address the unmet needs of pregnant and parenting students and staff on college campuses. For the past decade FFL’s Pregnancy Resource Forums on campuses across the country have revealed the still-unmet needs of pregnant and parenting students — especially a lack of housing, child care, telecommuting options, maternity coverage and medical riders for additional children. FFL found there is rarely a central place on campus for pregnancy and parenting resources. Even when resources are available, they are often not publicized. For pregnant and parenting students kept in the dark about the help they need and deserve, perception is their reality.
This March, which is Women’s History Month, Feminists for Life is helping college students make history for women by hosting Rallies for Resources on campuses across the country — so that women don’t feel driven to choose between sacrificing their children or their education and career plans.
The proposed Elizabeth Cady Stanton Pregnant and Parenting Student Services Act, a bipartisan effort led by Senators Elizabeth Dole and Ben Nelson and Representatives Marcy Kaptur and Sue Myrick, would make grants available for up to 200 colleges and universities to host pregnancy resource forums, create resource centers on campus, and communicate available support on and off campus.
There was one thing Weddington got right. “Whether she's unmarried; whether she's pursuing an education; whether she's pursuing a career; whether she has family problems; all of the problems of personal and family life, for a woman, are bound up in the problem of abortion.”
Abortion is a reflection that we have not met the needs of women.
Thirty-five years after Weddington capitulated to inherently unfair practices against pregnant and parenting women, those on both sides of the abortion debate should unite and say “no” to the status quo. Clearly women deserve better.
© 2008, Feminists for Life of America. This article may be reprinted in its entirety, including the author’s name and title, the organization name, and a link to www.feministsforlife.org.
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Since then, millions of women have paid the price, struggling in school and the workplace without societal support. After all, when “it’s her body, it’s her choice,” it’s her problem.
ReplyDeleteI hear reasoning like this all the time from pro-life people who don't want society to provide a safety net for pregnant women or poor single mothers. "It's her body, it's her choice -- to have sex. So it's her problem."
I hear that from political conservatives, but I've not heard it from prolifers that I hang out with.
ReplyDeleteCould it be that you assume that political conservatives are all prolifers?
And either way, why should the woman and her baby be made to suffer because other people have the attitude "It's her problem?" when there are people out there willing to help?
Because of this woman's arguments, abortion made it easier for the man to get what he wants and for the women to bear the brunt of the consequences. I can't believe that the feminists haven't realized this yet. So many feminists are anti anything male b/c of this supposed inequality but they never look at the reasons why it is and the part they played in making it possible. Abortion just made it easier for those men that want the milk without buying the cow to get exactly what they want. It certainly hasn't "freed" us women from the tyranny of men, it has just made it that much easier for them to get what they want and left us carrying the bag...
ReplyDeleteAmen, Sam.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteCould it be that you assume that political conservatives are all prolifers?
I don't think so. Though it is possible, of course.
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And either way, why should the woman and her baby be made to suffer because other people have the attitude "It's her problem?" when there are people out there willing to help?
I don't think they should be made to suffer -- but I also don't think that they should have to hope and pray that there are people nearby who are willing to help. I think that pregnant women/single mothers should have guaranteed access to healthcare and help, rather than being forced to rely on the voluntary charity of their community.
Awesome article - thank you for reposting it here.
ReplyDeleteBTW, don't forget the Prayer Primary tomorrow.
Alexandra, the money and effort to reach out to people has to come from somewhere. It can come one of two ways.
ReplyDelete1. We can strong-arm it from people thorough taxes, feed it through a huge, wasteful, impersonal bureaucracy, and deliver it as an entitlement that does nothing to foster relationships but instead reinforces the idea that regardless of your life choices, the world just somehow owes it to you to fix all your problems. This fosters resentment on both ends -- from those who had it taken from them forcably after they worked hard to earn it, and in those it's given to because they're taught that it should have just landed in their laps in the first place.
2. Build personal and genuine relationships in a community, where people are free to act in compassion. The giver has the gift of freely giving and reaching out to a fellow human being, and the receiver has a chance to learn what it was the giver did that enabled him or her to have surplus to share. The receiver has a role model of getting your act together and staying out of predicaments that make you dependent on the charity of others.
Sorry, but given the choice between relationships and bureacrcacy, I'm gonna take relationships every time.
Not to mention entitlements create scam artists. I've known people who worked just as hard at collecting entitlements and handouts as I worked at a job. There's something just fundamentally wrong with allowing that. People who are really in need but who aren't clever enough to manipulate the sytem wind up doing without, while clever and lazy people suck up the resouces the truly needy should be getting.
I agree with you on that as well. I'm really sick and tired of having to give my money to a government that wants to give it away to people who don't deserve it. I should choose where my "excess" income goes. My husband and I choose to send our money to pregnancy resource centers in areas near us b/c we know that it will go to hope women who are in need and help them to make something of their lives for themselves and their children. The fact that Planned Parenthood is given so much "free" money from the government and does nothing to truly help the women but instead continues to enable predatory men to prey on needy women and young girls really irks me. That's my money that is going to support that and I have no way of stopping it except for trying to elect people who feel the same as I do to office. Very frustrating...
ReplyDelete...abortion made it easier for the man to get what he wants...
ReplyDeleteAbortion just made it easier for those men that want the milk without buying the cow to get exactly what they want.
Sam, don't forget -- some of us women want exactly the same thing as the men want. We are "cows" who don't happen to want to be "bought."
Sam, it's not just a matter of spending it far more wisely. It's a matter of being given the opportunity to make a virtuous and generous choice.
ReplyDeleteThere's no virtue or generosity in giving away somebody else's money, or in having your own money taken with threat of fines and prison.
exactly. sorry that didn't come across in my post. it was what i was trying to get at...
ReplyDeleteChristina, is there a CPC that you know of that provides healthcare to low-income mothers? Or some benevolent family who pays for trips to the ER for 2-year olds of single mothers? Or health care for the mother herself, since she'll need to be healthy to work and care for her child? I'm not talking about onesies and formula; I'm talking about real fears that kept me -- for one -- from feeling as though I could survive a pregnancy and care for a young child.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder, though: you blame abortion for making these issues "her problem" rather than forcing society to tackle these issues which keep pregnancy from being a viable option for single women -- yet your views on how they should be handled appear to have little to do with abortion being legal or not. Effectively, you would change nothing about the way our system deals with unplanned pregnancies and the children that result from them. Tell me, what ways of dealing with unplanned pregnancies and single mothers would you support that are unlikely to be enacted if abortion is legal? If anything, I'd wager that legalized abortion has a positive effect on the amount of charity people are willing to give, since there is a vested interest in making it possible for the woman to continue the pregnancy (the worry that she will choose not to).
I do wonder, though: you blame abortion for making these issues "her problem" rather than forcing society to tackle these issues which keep pregnancy from being a viable option for single women -- yet your views on how they should be handled appear to have little to do with abortion being legal or not.
ReplyDeleteWhy the heck should society bother to tackle any of it when it's HER fault that she didn't "take care of it"? After all, she is "choosing" to be a single mom rather than go head to PP and fix it.
Effectively, you would change nothing about the way our system deals with unplanned pregnancies and the children that result from them.
I didn't say that. I just said that setting up a huge system of entitlements wasn't the way to go.
Steve Friend had an excellent proposal for the state to work in partnership with insurance providers and HMOs. I'd love to see something like that. I'd love to see community networks that hook poor singles and/or families up with mentors who show them how to build a prosperous life. There are a lot of things I'd like to see change. I just don't want a massive federal entitlement "fix" because frankly I don't think it would accomplish anything but increase the number of bureaucrats who make a living keeping poor people poor.
Tell me, what ways of dealing with unplanned pregnancies and single mothers would you support that are unlikely to be enacted if abortion is legal?
The landscape would change, because it would no longer be HER PROBLEM that she was selfishly foiting off on others by refusing to climb on the abortion table.
I'd wager that legalized abortion has a positive effect on the amount of charity people are willing to give, since there is a vested interest in making it possible for the woman to continue the pregnancy (the worry that she will choose not to).
There you do have a valid point. I've wondered myself if part of the reason God is allowing this hideous thing to go on so long is to force us to build communities that don't pit mothers and children against each other.
I think this is what really gets me about people who support abortion. They are more concerned with themselves than they are with the logical outcome of their own actions.
ReplyDeleteL. earlier said that she was like the men who wanted the milk w/o buying the cow. That's all well and good but then you have to accept what the outcome is of wanting one thing w/o thinking about the other. Logically, pregnancy follows sexual intercourse. That is the way our bodies are made. Women have sex and most likely they will get pregnant. It follows the natural order. So, if you choose to have sex than you are also making a choice to become pregnant as well. Sex is more than just having an orgasm, it's about what can be created by the love of a man and a woman. If you're going into it just to scratch an itch then IMO you're no better than the animals who do it. You're actually worse b/c the animals don't then turn on the young they have conceived and kill them.
I don't see sex as a right that everyone has. I see it as a priviledge granted to those who are unselfish enough to live with the natural consequences of their own actions. Who know that by having sex they could be creating a child and who are willing to accept the child that is created by that union. People who are scratching the itch are only thinking of themselves and when they do end up pregnant and they chose abortion instead of life it shows just how selfish they truly are b/c they don't have the courage to accept the normal outcome of their actions. Instead they blame it on the failure of their birth control and make it someone else's problem to fix. And look where it has gotten our society.
A lot of the problems our society faces today are based on the perception that everyone has a "right" to everything their little hearts desire. Well I'm sorry, I didn't spend 10 years in college eating mac and cheese to pay for anyone's right to an abortion or free birth control or welfare or anything else that takes my money away for something that I find is morally reprehensible!
I'm sorry I've gone on at such length but it angers me to see how selfish people can be and how quickly they try and make it someone else's problem when they've screwed up...
I like and am interested in a lot of what you're saying, Christina. But this part confuses me:
ReplyDeleteThe landscape would change, because it would no longer be HER PROBLEM that she was selfishly foiting off on others by refusing to climb on the abortion table.
Don't you think that it would merely revert to being HER PROBLEM that she had selfishly foisted on others by having sex? Why should anyone help a woman who is -- as sam said -- "no better than the animals who do it"? A woman who wants sex but is not ready to be a mother? Do you really think that it would go from "You can fix it by aborting" to "We can fix it by working with you," rather than to "You caused the problem in the first place, you find some way to fix it"?
Alexandra, I don't think a lot of the women climbing on the abortion table wanted to have the sexual encounters that led them there. Which is another thing that I hope would be addressed if the landscape changed. Or rather, AS the landscape changes.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most disgusting things I ever heard in my life was a session of National Abortion Federation nurses lamenting that the women didn't follow through on the medical instruction to abstain from sex after they abortions, not because the women were a bunch of nymphos who just couldn't go without sex for a few weeks, but because they were in "relationships" with the biggest scuzbags on the planet.
These guys were having sex with multiple women, refused to wear condoms, and would use threats and bullying to get the woman to submit to sex whether they wanted it or not. Now, where I come from that's RAPE. But there wasn't one word about referring the women to domestic violence shelters or to anybody who could help them get out of the living hell they were in. It was just seen as a medical issue of preventing infection. Everything would be hunky dory if the guys would maybe wear condoms, or go bang one of their other chattels for a couple of weeks. Go knock somebody else up while this one heals.
I don't think recriminalization would magically fix that. But getting rid of the idea of abortion as a "right" would go a long way, because it would get us facing the reality that for most of the women submitting to it, abortion isn't some exercise in free choice. It's something they feel trapped into because everybody in their lives has bailed on them or is bullying them.
These women are trapped in an endless cycle of abuse and abortions -- but for the abortion lobby, the solution isn't to help them escape the cycle, it's to get the taxpayers to foot the bill for keeping them trapped. Which is presented as what you do when you "trust women" and "care about women".
Bullshit.
And I don't think that those nurses are indifferent to the women's well-being. I think that they've just gotten so stuck into the narrow mindset of "We're helping them by making safe, legal abortion available" that they never see that they're part of the cycle.
I've seen women for whom the love they had for their unborn child was the jolt they needed to get out of an abusive relaionship. One woman kicked her herion habit for her baby. This can only happen if we look at the fact that she's pregnant as an opportunity to turn her life around instead of as a reason to scrape her out and leave her where she is.
Exactly Christina!
ReplyDeleteI couldn't find the words to express that...I have no problem helping women who want to change the cycle, who want to take responsibility, who want the help.
The pregnancy resource center that my husband and I support has stories like this all the time! Women who decided to keep their child and break out of the cycle of abuse and make something of themselves. As 'graduates' of the center, they come back to inspire the women who have taken their place. This center is phenomenal! They just opened a new facility that was made as "green" as possible as well, with solar energy and recycling facilities built right into the new buildings. I know my money is making a difference in the lives of these women b/c I can see it in their faces and in the faces of the children they have. This is the legacy of pregnancy resource centers. Productive lives and happy babies that will hopefully grow up to be productive members of society. But even if they don't they were at least given the chance to do so...
That is so cool, sam!
ReplyDelete