Ms. Magazine's 'We Had Abortions' Campaign Disgusts Pro-Lifers

by Jenni Parker
October 6, 2006

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(AgapePress) - - Pro-family leaders are voicing disgust and dismay at the October 10th Ms. Magazine cover story, the title of which boasts, "We Had Abortions." The magazine, published by the Feminist Majority, has announced plans to publish a petition signed by more than 1,000 women who reveal they have had abortions and who demand "a repeal of laws that restrict women's reproductive freedom."

Ms. Magazine editors say even more names will appear on their web site, and the petition with all the names will be sent to the White House and to legislative bodies across the United States. The action comes as pro-abortion activists face impending state legislation that would ban abortions in several states as well as the prospect that federal laws permitting abortion could be rescinded, especially if a fifth conservative judge were appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

CWF's Bauer: Pro-Aborts See Tide Turning Against Them
Gary Bauer of Campaign for Working Families points out that the pro-abortion feminists' demand for the repeal laws restricting their abortion "rights" would include laws against late term abortions and parental notification (before performing an abortion on a minor), too. And the reason this cry for "reproductive freedom" is being issued now, he says, is because "the folks at the Feminist Majority sense the tide is turning against them."

These abortion proponents know that Americans never voted to legalize abortion-on-demand, Bauer notes. "And as time and medical science have progressed," he notes, "the Left has steadily lost ground in the public relations battle. Having won in the courts, they nevertheless failed to win the hearts and minds of the American people."

Adding to pro-abortion forces' tensions is the fact that several states, as well as the Supreme Court, are even now taking up various aspects of the abortion debate. On November 7, the voters of South Dakota will decide the fate of the nation's strongest pro-life law. And the following day, a newly constituted Supreme Court will hear arguments challenging the 2003 federal partial-birth abortion ban.

When the high court last addressed the partial-birth abortion issue in 2000, former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor provided the crucial vote to strike down Nebraska's ban on the gruesome procedure in a 5-to-4 majority ruling. But now O'Connor has been replaced on the court by Samuel Alito, whose record -- Bauer notes -- "strongly suggests that he does not find in our Constitution a 'right' to puncture the skull of a fully developed baby."

Meanwhile, Bauer notes, in a climate charged by the proximity of upcoming elections, even many leading liberals are "toning down their rhetoric and talking pro-life." And as a result, he adds, "there is great wailing and gnashing of teeth at the Feminist Majority."

Concerned Women for America (CWA) has also taken note of the pro-abortion crowd's growing desperation. According to the pro-family women's organization, many feminist readers of Ms. Magazine are ardent supporters of Planned Parenthood, another group that is greatly threatened by potential law or policy changes that would limit abortion on demand.

Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Senior Fellow of CWA's Beverly LaHaye Institute, describes Ms. Magazine's "morally bankrupt" effort to promote abortion "rights" as appalling and "an embarrassment for civilized and caring human beings." And the suggested pride behind the "We Had Abortions" campaign, she asserts, "is "totally inconsistent with, and puts the lie to, the fatuous claim ... by the Left that they too want to make abortion rare."

While that disingenuous rhetoric from abortion proponents is "frequently bandied about during election campaigns," Crouse says, the truth is that there are thousands of women who could sign a petition like the one Ms. Magazine is pushing. However, she notes, many women who have had an abortion "are not comfortable with the decision, and thousands deeply regret their abortions."

And some of these women, the CWA spokeswoman adds, are devastated because their abortions have left them unable to have children. "Certainly, even most women who believe that abortion is acceptable would not celebrate such a drastic action," she says.

Crouse says the desperation of abortion "rights" activists is turning into "a sorry spectacle." And its latest campaign is sure to backfire, she predicts, especially as the American public begins to see "the crass motivation" behind the pro-abortion movement.