In 2003 Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, late founder of the Institute of Women's Studies at Emory University (USA), wrote an article entitled "Abortion: A War on Women". How could she claim that abortion is actually an attack on women when its supporters frequently present it as a human right and something necessary to set women on equal footing with men. Highlights from her article follow:
"We need not linger over the evidence of many women dead from hasty, botched, or unsanitary abortions, although we know there are enough to make one cry."
"We do...have studies that point to a link between abortion and breast cancer. The precise nature of the link still invokes heated debate, but is becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss its existence out of hand."
"The devastating emotional consequences of abortion are beginning to be even more widely documented. Women who have had abortions are at high risk for serious and lasting depression, and they are more likely than women who have not had abortions to suffer drug or alcohol addiction or even to commit suicide."
"Not all women can bear children, and not all women wish to do so, but the potential to do so lies at the core of being a woman. By trivializing and even denigrating women's ability to bear children, legalized abortion has stripped women of their dignity as women; it has shredded the primary tie among women of different classes, races, ethnicities, and national origins; it has seriously diminished women's prospects for a lasting marriage; and it has exposed them to unprecedented levels of sexual exploitation. Welcome to the brave new world of freedom, ladies-and gentlemen."
"Legalized abortion begins as a war against women, whom it tells that in order to be worthy, they must become like men. Perhaps worse, in severing the binding tie between women and the children they conceive, legalized abortion dismisses women from the company of responsible persons who are capable of sacrificing a piece of their freedom for the good of others-especially the children who embody our future."
On a positive note, Fox-Genovese says: "we must first acknowledge the importance and justice of women's participation at all levels in the worlds of work, politics, and the arts. We do not aspire to return women to subservient domesticity-much less deprive the world of their considerable talents...Our challenge is to turn the clock forward by offering women new visions that do not pit their lives against the lives of their children in a Darwinian struggle for survival."
She concludes: "The life issues, which begin with abortion, are emerging as the most important issues of our time, and women are their front-line custodians. It remains to be seen whether we will rise to the challenge."
May Swazi women and men, and all people of goodwill, protect women from the assault of abortion. No to abortion; yes to life.
