The feminists vs. the Sisters
The thought alone is provocative. ‘Who’s lookin’ out for you, kid?’
Kathryn Jean Lopez points out the irony of reproductive rights activists targeting an order of nuns devoted to women and children.
They are a Catholic group of women religious established in 1991 by the late John Cardinal O’Connor, “for the protection and enhancement of the sacredness of every human life.” Eleanor Bader, co-author of Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism, is outraged that the Sisters have been so successful in their mission to serve women, children, and families who feel hopeless in the face of a pregnancy. They take women in, they take their children in, they serve them, encourage them, feed them, and get them on their feet. They also serve women that liberal feminism, all too often, leaves behind: those who are mourning the loss of a child who was a casualty of the celebrated “freedom to choose” that isn’t always actually a choice, due to desperation and a failure to see viable alternatives.
So….who are the true feminists? Define feminism. Is it a term that has so lost currency that it can’t be resurrected in any form? Pope John Paul II referred to a new feminism and the case can certainly be made that a new breed of pro-life, pro-woman and child, pro-family, pro-traditional values and strong, smart and capable women have risen to prominence in recent years (especially months) that challenges the old, tired model of angry feminism. But still, the question is intriguing whether the term can even be revived, or should.
I’m not into polls, have a healthy skepticism of them in fact, but would like to hear what readers think about feminism.
Meanwhile, KJ raises another clarifying point:
This attack on these self-sacrificial women comes at a time when the New York City Council has been taking aim at New York City Crisis Pregnancy Centers that provide alternatives to abortion, often in close vicinity to abortion clinics. It’s almost as if some legal-abortion activists aren’t all that into the “rare” part of “safe, legal, and rare.”
About time we put that to the challenge.
