Posted on 03/04/2008 4:08:09 PM PST by wagglebee
LifeNews.com Note: Maria Vitale is Education Director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation and a LifeNews.com Opinion Columnist. Vitale has written and reported for various broadcast and print media outlets, including National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and AP Radio.
When I was a little girl, I was determined to read every good fiction book in the children's section of the Bexley Public Library in Bexley, Ohio. After I had whizzed through my teacher's list of selections, I'd ask the librarian what she would recommend I read.
Ironically, I don't remember many of those tomes--but I do recall reading a biography of early feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. After I read her life story, she became a heroine to me.
Stanton was dedicated to the cause of women's rights and, as the granddaughter of a suffragette, I liked that idea. But in adulthood, I discovered that Stanton was equally dedicated to the cause of unborn women's rights.
According to the organization known as Feminists for Life, she opposed both abortion and infanticide, a position noted in The Revolution, the newspaper published by Stanton and the legendary Susan B. Anthony. When her seventh child was born, Stanton celebrated her motherhood by hoisting a flag in front of her home, indicating that she was as overjoyed with her seventh as she had been with her first.
Stanton secured a place in the history books by organizing the first Women's Rights Convention in 1848, but she was equally proud of her accomplishments as a mother.
In a letter announcing the birth of her daughter Harriet, Stanton wrote, "I am at length the happy mother of a daughter. Rejoice with me all womankind for lo! A champion of thy cause is born."
According to The American Feminist, a publication of Feminists for Life, in 1873 Stanton wrote a letter to Julia Ward Howe, the woman who gave us Mother's Day. In that letter, Stanton stated, "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit."
As this quote clearly indicates, Stanton did not view abortion as empowering to women, but rather, a sign of society failing women, an indication of deep disrespect of women and of their fertility.
Throughout her inspiring life, Stanton was both ardently pro-woman and passionately pro-life. She did not believe that women's success in society should come at the expense of their unborn children. For Stanton, the struggle for equality did not necessitate the slaughter of innocent babies in the womb.
March marks Women's History Month -- a perfect time for remembering the life and legacy of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. If you're the parent of a young woman, make sure she's aware of Stanton and her stand on life. It's important for the next generation of female pro-life leaders to know whose shoulders they are standing on.
Today the feminazis are proudest of how many babies they've murdered.
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It's common to think of abortion as an issue in America dating from Roe v. Wade, but clearly it was an issue when slavery was an issue.
How could it have possibly gone on for as long as it has?
early feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton would not have been pro-life AND a “feminist” she had lived 100 years later...
Abortion is antithetical to the truly feminine. I suspect Ms. Stanton et al were nothing like their cold, angry, butch successors who have no right to claim any form of the word.
Can I celebrate women’s reproductive choice by aborting Women’s History month before its one-third over?
LMAO!
I am from Rochester NY, the home of Susan B. Anthony. I believe Anthony was also pro-life.
She was.
With that attitude, eventually today’s feminists will be extinct!
Because an utterly self-centered generation demanded it. Our side is winning the culture war on it, though. Full 1/3 of the “under 35” generation of today is missing never having been allowed a chance to even be born. The full consequences of that may never be known or understood. I invite you to click and listen to “A Dream A Lot Like Mine” http://www.myspace.com/emmettgrayson. It’s free, of course.
Women’s History Month???
Women and month should not be mentioned in the same phrase.
**Women’s History Month Should Follow the Footsteps of Early Pro-Life Feminists**
And some of the American saints, too!
Any idea when congress will declare White Male history month???
Now here’s a biography of a woman I could have my daughter read... in a few years!
Don’t Forget it March is Irish History Month..
More like three generations at least, just using the date in the article. I find that remarkable.
"Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!"
Abortion was referred to as "child murder." The Revolution, 4(1):4 July 8, 1869
More great quotes from the prolife first-wave feminists found at the Feminists for Life website.
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