Who’s looking out for women?

Take a hard look at the abortion/pro-life battle these days. Colleen Carroll Campbell takes this look at feminism’s false promises.

When Gov. Matt Blunt signed into law new regulations for Missouri abortion clinics this month, the critical response from abortion-rights groups highlighted a hotly contested question in today’s abortion debate: Which side cares more about women?

For decades, the feminist establishment has declared the question a no-brainer. The right to abortion is the premier women’s right, feminist leaders argue, so support for unfettered abortion access is the litmus test for concern for women. And restrictions on abortion or abortion providers — such as the new provision in Missouri law that holds abortion clinics to the same health and safety standards as other outpatient surgical centers — are, by definition, anti-woman.

This simplistic logic permeates much press coverage of abortion. The terms “women’s rights” and “abortion rights” are used interchangeably. Pro-choice politicians are presumed to have a lock on the women’s vote. And pro-lifers are depicted as fanatical about babies but indifferent to their mothers.

Like most conventional wisdom, these assumptions have grown stale. The claim that pro-choice advocates have a corner on compassion is belied by the reality of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers that offer women food, shelter, clothing and emotional support. These centers, for which state support was solidified under the new law, serve women abandoned by a society that considers pregnancy a woman’s choice — and a woman’s problem.

Exactly. Crisis pregnancy centers are the vanguard of the pro-life movement now, exposing the lie that that the pro-choicers are the best advocates for women. That’s why abortion activists have adjusted their strategy and started paying much more attention to CPCs, in order to discredit them. The disinformation campaign is still growing.