The hypocrisy of the ‘pro-life’ movement
In her diatribe (‘Choice’ is a mantra of radical feminists, Nov 5), against Alma Rutgers’ Oct 18 columncriticizing the evasiveness of the Greenwich Republican state representative candidates on whether they support constitutional protections for a woman’s right to choose, Anne Burns completely misses the point. Ms. Burns attacked Ms. Rutgers and millions of women for “arrogantly” claiming to speak for others on how women should make choices about motherhood. They do no such thing.
Roe v. Wade does not take a position one way or the other on the morality of abortion. It merely says the Fourth Amendment right to privacy prohibits the government from interfering with a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.
Supporting the right to a safe, legal and affordable abortion is hardly radical. Quite the opposite; in Connecticut two-thirds of adults support a woman’s right to choose. Regardless of party affiliation, a majority believes it is up to the individual to decide whether and when to become a parent, a decision that should not be constrained by socioeconomic status or insurance coverage. Nationwide, nearly three-quarters of Republicans support the right to abortion in at least some circumstances, and even amajority of Catholics believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases. If anyone holds radical views on abortion, it is Ms. Burns.
The arrogance is Ms. Burns’ alone, for foisting her morality on others. In the decades-long fight over abortion rights, only the anti-choice faction has tried to dictate what a woman can or cannot do with her own body. They do it by deceiving women in “crisis pregnancy centers” masquerading as health care clinics, which can delay access to time-sensitive reproductive healthcare. They do it by passing laws that severely restrict access to safe and affordable abortions. They do it by criminalizing medical procedures. They do it by terrorizing women as they enter abortion clinics. They even do it by murdering doctors who perform abortions and bombing abortion clinics.
The hypocrisy of the so-called “pro-life” movement to which Ms. Burns belongs is astounding. Their determination to protect living cells from the moment of conception stands in stark contrast to their anti-life policies after birth. As Ms. Burns noted, the core of the anti-choice movement is white evangelicals; nearly four out of five who supported Donald Trump — the president who forcibly separated children from parents, who let the pandemic spiral out of control killing 240,000 Americans so far, who is arguing for the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act which could end health care coverage for millions of Americans, and who calls the existential threat of climate change a hoax. The anti-choice movement is only “pro-life” when it suits their agenda.
On one thing we agree with Ms. Burns: the hundreds of thousands of women — and men — in what she calls those “ridiculous pink hats” who marched in the single-largest day of protest in the nation’s history have a world view very different from hers. Hers believes that the government should dictate how women live their lives. Ours believes that women’s equality demands they have autonomy over the most personal and profound decision they can make, whether and when to bring a life into this world.
Jonathan Perloe submitted this with fellow Greenwich residents who support women’s reproductive rights, including access to safe, legal and affordable abortion: Peter Berg, Judy Berg, Emily Bierman, Robert Brady, Meredith Braxton, John Cooper, Stephanie D’Alton Barrett, Dan Edelstein, Valerie Erde, Melissa Evans-Kordick, Bill Finger, Beth Finger, Jordie Gerson, Nicole Heath, Sydney Heath, Lori Jackson, Betsy Keller, Rachel Khanna, Kieran Khanna, Anjali Khanna, Sophie Khanna, Sue Khanna, Dina Klein Lunder, Mark Kordick, Lucy Krasnor, Janet Lee McMahon, Sarah Littman, Heidi Matonis, Hale McSharry, Shelley Meltzer, Deborah Michals, Malaine Miller, Jean Moore, Janet Murphey, Monica Prihoda, Caryn Rosenbaum, Steve Rubin, Louise Salzer, Juliet Schnur, Jeffrey Stewart, Joanna Swomley, David Synder, Michele Voigt, Courtney Weil, Marianne Weill and Anne Wichman.