Pro-life feminism

Anti-abortion feminism or pro-life feminism is the opposition to abortion by some feminists who believe that the principles which inform their support of women's rights also call them to support the right to life of prenatal humans. Anti-abortion feminists believe abortion hurts women more than it benefits them.

The anti-abortion feminist movement began to take shape in the early to mid-1970s with the founding of Feminists for Life (FFL) in the United States and Women for Life in Great Britain amid legal changes in those nations which widely permitted abortion. FFL and the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) are the most prominent anti-abortion feminist organizations in the United States. Other feminist pro-life organizations include New Wave Feminists and Feminists for Nonviolent Choices.

Anti-abortion feminists consider the legal option of abortion to "support anti-motherhood social attitudes and policies and limit respect for women's citizenship". Anti-abortion feminists believe that abortion is an action dictated by society and legal abortion "perpetuates an uncaring, male-dominated society." Laury Oaks, Associate Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, writes that when abortion is legal, anti-abortion feminists believe, "women come to see pregnancy and parenting as obstacles to full participation in education and the workplace," and describes anti-abortion feminist activism in Ireland as more "pro-mother" than "pro-woman". Oaks has written that while Irish abortion opponents valorize child-bearing and are critical of the notion that women have "a right to an identity beyond motherhood", some, such as Breda O'Brien, founder of Feminists for Life Ireland, also offer feminist-inspired arguments that women's contributions to society are not limited to such functions.

Anti-abortion feminist organizations generally do not distinguish between views on abortion as a legal issue, abortion as a moral issue, and abortion as a medical procedure. Such distinctions are made by many women, for example, women who would not abort their own pregnancies but would prefer that abortion remain legal.

Anti-abortion feminist organizations seek to personalize abortion by using women who "survived" abortions to attempt to convince others of their argument.

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