The Graying of Abortion
By Helen Alvare
Is pro-abortion feminism approaching the end of its appointed life-span? Partly from changes in society, partly from self-inflicted wounds? Are more people ending their romance with the hollow philosophy: "not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate..."? These are questions well-worth asking, particularly in light of a number of surprising admissions from pro-abortion feminist leaders in recent weeks.
Perhaps the most stunning information comes from a voice long familiar in the abortion debate: Faye Wattleton, former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Wattleton now runs the Center for Gender Equality (CGE) in New York City. In an advertisement in the Feb. 3 New York Times, Wattleton's group announced the results of a study it commissioned: "Seventy percent of women now favor more restrictions on abortion, including 40 percent who think it should be outlawed except in cases of rape, incest or to save a woman's life." (The group forgot to mention that its own study showed another 13 percent who believe it should never be legal, for a total of 53 percent.) The ad also reports that "the percentage of women who believe politicians should e guided by religious values has increased by more than 40 percent." (For a current figure of 46 percent, up from 32 percent six years ago.) Summarizing CGE's study, the add says that women are growing stronger in their belief that religious values should influence politics. The tone of the entire ad is one of alarm. And CGE should be alarmed. Kate Michelman of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action Leqgue (NARRAL) has recently been publicly lamenting what one might call the "graying of the abortion lobby." She told the New York Times and Mirabella magazine that the average age of NARRAL members is about 55, and this causes the group great concern. She acknowledged at a January press conference that abortion in America is "increasingly stigmatized," and that the abortion lobby is losing ground in state legislatures around the nation.
This is confirmed by another voice in the pro-abortion movement, Frances Kissling. Kissling, a former abortion clinic administrator, now purports to speak for Catholics who are "For a Free Choice." (While the group has no actual members, it receives hefty financing from foundations and others who promote population control. It also gets a lot of media attention.) Kissling's compliant, according to the St. Louis Post Dispatch: "Most of the anti-abortion camp is getting younger. The abortion rights movement," she added, is "growing older."
Sadly for her group, her intuition is borne out by cold, hard statistics. According to the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, support for legalized abortion among college freshman in the United States has fallen from 65 percent to 51 percent since 1990. And girls are more opposed to legal abortion than boys.
Kissling has an interesting spin on all of this: "To a certain extent, we're (the pro-abortion movement is) preserving the status quo, which tends to attract an older audience. The anti-abortion movement is the counter-culture movement. It's very easy for young people to romanticize life."
But what to make of all these admissions? Given how badly they reflect on the groups making them, I'm inclined to believe they're true. To be sure, their public disclosure is calculated to provoke abortion supporters into more action. But there are good reasons to doubt that this will work. Pro-lifers have sensed for some time a cultural shift away from sexual irresponsibility, away from the "me, me, me" school of thought, and toward an ethic of the responsibility for all human life. You could get a strong sense of this in the reception given by the press and the public to the pope's recent visits to St. Louis and Mexico. Even in 1993, when the Holy Father visited Denver for World Youth Day, news reports placed much more emphasis on the supposed chasm between the pope and youth on matters concerning human sexuality and abortion. This year? Media coverage focused far more on his positive calls for youth -- and to everyone else for that, matter -- to live chastely, act justly, and to protect human life.
To which I can only say: "Go counterculture!"
Helen Alvare is director of Planning and Information
for the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities
Send a pro life letter (letter is preferable) or an email to your Senators and representatives using the Directory at the Congressional Email Directory. Point and click here to surf to their web site.
Copyright ©1999 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol. 24, No 8;
page 5, dated Feb 25, 1999.
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A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that ordinary everyday Abortion is also murder. We must understand that murder is murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not justify the other methods. We should be horrified and sickened by any Abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly: "Thou shalt not kill." A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul. Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any Abortion occurs. Please contact both of your Senators and Representative, via letter or phone, to let them know how horrified you are that Abortions are legal and to stop Partial-Birth Abortions and all other Abortions as soon as possible. (It has become apparent that they do not respond to email therefore you will have more of an impact by writing or telephoning.)
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