Posted on 02/17/2010 4:19:20 AM PST by Servant of the Cross
Yesterday marked the opening of the Susan B. Anthony museum in Rochester, New York—and instead of celebrating, a lot of feminists are miffed. The museum was purchased by a member of Feminists Choosing Life of New York, and pro-choice groups are accusing her of “hijacking Susan.”
Apparently, they want the famous suffragist’s views on abortion scrubbed from the historical record. “There's absolutely nothing in anything that [Susan B. Anthony] ever said or did that would indicate she was anti-abortion,” Planned Parenthood founder Gloria Feldt.
Absolutely nothing? A quick Google search disproves that in a hurry. In her suffragist newspaper The Revolution, Anthony wrote that “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, for selfish gratification…drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime.”
Anthony wasn’t the only early feminist to oppose abortion. Her views were shared by women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the feminist behind the historic Seneca Falls Convention and mother of seven children. (If Stanton applied for a teaching position in a women’s studies department today, she would probably be labeled a “Jesus freak” and promptly dismissed.)
“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,” Stanton wrote to her friend Julia Ward Howe in 1873.
Victoria Woodhull, the first female stockbroker on Wall Street, also became the first woman to run for President in 1870. An early suffragette with a flair for the outrageous, Woodhull personified the modern feminist slogan “well-behaved women rarely make history.” (She was repeatedly arrested and jailed for her political activities.) And she, too, opposed abortion.
“A human life is a human life and equally to be held sacred whether it be a day or a century old,” Woodhull wrote. “Wives…to prevent becoming mothers…deliberately murder [children] while yet in their wombs. Can there be a more demoralized condition than this? ”
Alice Paul, who authored the original Equal Rights Amendment, was willing to face arrests, harassment and physical assaults in order to win the right to vote. Later, when 1960s feminists began advocating the repeal of abortion laws, Paul asked, “How can one protect and help women by killing them as babies?” She considered abortion “the ultimate exploitation of women.”
It’s one thing for pro-choice feminists to admit they disagree with the early feminists’ position on abortion. It’s quite another to suppress the truth and stuff words in the suffragists’ mouths—words clearly contradicted by their own writings.
Some pro-choicers’ denialism is borderline comical. After the opening of the Susan B. Anthony museum, an opposition group launched a Web site dedicated to refuting Anthony’s anti-abortion stance.
“Feminists Choosing Life of New York, Feminists for Life of America, and Susan B Anthony's List are engaging in a incessant campaign to align Susan B Anthony with their anti-choice cause and imply that Susan B Anthony was pro-life,” the site says. “One of the primary goals of susanbanthonymuseum.com is to provide accurate historical interpretation and context regarding Susan B Anthony's written and verbal statements regarding the abortion issue.”
However, the site doesn’t provide a single source citing Anthony’s written and verbal statements. The “resources” section of the site is blank.
As my old boss used to say, “if you don’t like what the facts say about your ideology, you might want to rethink your ideology.”
As for who is “hijacking Susan” and rewriting history, pro-choice feminists might want to look in the mirror.
Ash - thanks for this ‘walk through history’. You have helped to “correct” the legacy of Susan B. Anthony.
Instead, they opt for that stale "inside-the-Beltway" air.
If the pro-abortion feminists weren't so stubbornly against facts (such as the suffering endured by so many women upon having an abortion; the exploitation of young girls resulting in abortions, and on and on), they might be believable.
Unfortunately, their stranglehold on academia is pretty strong. So, they can propogate their lies, without factual basis.
Great article. This information needs to be spread widely, if just to tweak the anti-life people.
Except for this sentence: “The above organizations are involved in a long term campaign to redefine feminism through a anti-choice perspective and co-opt important historic feminist figures as icons for their anti-choice crusade.”
Except for that, the website appears to be representing pro-life groups. If it isn’t, you’d think there’d be more rancor, more smears. Calling the movement “anti-choice” is the hint of pro-abort bias I can detect anywhere.
But of course, the feminazis ‘jumped the shark’ a couple of weeks ago by claiming that the Tebow superbowl ad glorified violence against women. Their credibility on any statements made should ALWAYS be investigated further.
“Death Panels....”
I agree. (You can tell FReeper Ashley yourself too). Most exciting is this article is from a 20-something woman who will have great influence over her generation of women who won't buy the "old hag" version of 'feminism' (it's a fraud on the same order as the climate-hoax crap) any more. (note: she's also already written her own book too).
You can say that again. Tim Tebow's Father Bob Tebow Talks About Decision Against Abortion, Son's Birth. The feminazis fell for it and gave the story legs and a vastly expanded audience. Thanks Gloria, et al!
Someone needs to educate the public,especially the black community, on the teachings and beliefs of Margret Sanger.
Sanger is someone who has REALLY been historically whitewashed to the public by the feminist community.
Great idea! Perhaps an idea for a follow up article by Ms. Herzog at Townhall?
Film an alarm call to black Americans on abortion’s impact
(http://www.southtownstar.com/news/eaton/2038586,021010eatoncol.article)
February 10, 2010
By Fran Eaton
There’s a justified outrage brewing among a growing number of black Americans, thanks to a shocking documentary circulating titled “Maafa 21.”
The film links the founders of Planned Parenthood to a sinister black genocide plan, and conservative blacks are determined to get the word out. “Maafa 21” is the center topic of this month’s Freedom’s Journal Magazine, an online publication produced by Matteson resident Dr. Eric Wallace.
FJM is launching its third year, and it is the first time a black genocide conspiracy has been discussed, Wallace said.
“Being that February is Black History Month, we thought it the right time to discuss the devastation that abortion is bringing on black Americans,” he said.
Indeed. According to statistics gathered since 1973, 14 million black Americans have been victimized by abortion, while fewer than 4 million have died from AIDS, crime, accidents, cancer and heart disease, combined.
“Maafa” - an African word for “tragedy” - goes through several historical resources and highlights controversial quotes linking Charles Darwin’s foundational evolution theory work, “The Origin of Species,” with contemporary author Francis Galton’s writings on eugenics. The film’s theory is that while some of the nation’s wealthiest families benefited from early America’s African slave trade, when slaves were freed after the Civil War, some of those same families developed a plan to rid the nation of African “undesirables.”
As far-fetched as this conspiracy theory may seem to the rest of us, in-depth research in “Maafa 21” shows how black Americans may be the victims of an even more tragic history than any of us ever could have imagined. And the travesty continues, now being funded with our taxpayer dollars.
“Black Americans were brought to this continent in chains,” writes Mychal Massie, chairman of black leadership network Project 21 in this month’s FJM. “After emancipation, we were subject to unfair laws that restricted the freedoms we were promised. Discrimination has robbed us of opportunity.”
But for Massie, the anger culminates with the ongoing pro-abortion propaganda promoted on unknowing black brothers and sisters.
“Now with the playing field as level as it has ever been, blacks are still being pushed into a corner by abortion.”
First known as the American Birth Control League, the accused group’s moniker evolved in the late 1930s to the more positive-sounding Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is now the nation’s largest abortion provider. Statistics show that 49 out of 1,000 black women undergo abortion, compared with 13 out of 1,000 white women.
As a result, encouraging abortion is shrinking America’s black population, Wallace says. More blacks must become familiar with the roots and effects of abortion politics.
“Over the years, I had read about Margaret Sanger and her visits with the Ku Klux Klan, but this documentary is eyeopening,” Wallace said. “ ‘Maafa 21’ doesn’t focus on a conspiracy theory to stir racism, it’s an effort to make people aware of the devastation abortion is bringing upon black America.”
Abortion isn’t just a social or religious issue, Wallace said. It’s an economic issue, as well.
“When black America’s next generation shrinks, so does its economic opportunity and prosperity,” Wallace said. “Abortion also affects health care and environmental policy. Population control promotes negative attitudes toward our future.”
So, we asked, how could it be that just when America elected its first African-American president, he uses his office to expand the role of Planned Parenthood and abortion?
“One person told me that while showing ‘Maafa 21’ on the East Coast, one of the young viewers said he regretted he had supported Barack Obama for president,” Wallace said.
“Either Barack Obama is ignorant of Planned Parenthood’s effects on black America, or he has sold us down the river. I don’t know which one.”
Obama’s history of backing Planned Parenthood’s agenda goes back to his days in the Illinois Senate, when he opposed every attempt to restrict abortion. While campaigning in 2008, then-U.S. Sen. Obama told a gathering of Planned Parenthood supporters he shared their commitment to “a woman’s right to choose,” a promise he has kept as president.
But, Wallace says, it’s not just Obama who has promoted Planned Parenthood’s anti-black agenda. It goes back to Democrats during Franklin Delano Roosevelt through Bill Clinton’s administrations, as well as Republicans during Richard M. Nixon’s years.
Over the decades, social conservatives and religious leaders have been the only consistent opponents to Planned Parenthood’s sinister plot, writes Catherine Davis, director of minority outreach for Georgia Right to Life. Democrats Jimmy Carter and Republicans Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were among the “only stalwarts to fight against eugenics, and defend the sanctity of life and traditional family values,” she wrote in this month’s FJM.
Davis’ admonition is a challenge for fellow blacks to re-evaluate their loyalty to Democrats and anyone else who advocates abortion in their political party’s platform.
Wallace’s Freedom’s Journal Magazine is an effort, based in Chicago’s south suburbs, to educate black Americans about their history and encourage them to view the world with a new appreciation for limited government, individual rights, free markets and traditional values.
Black America’s future history lessons will hinge upon the black community’s openness to the “Maafa 21” documentary and conservative black publications like Freedom’s Journal Magazine.
Obviously, it’s time we all made an effort to learn that history and not be doomed to repeating those devastating mistakes.
Conservative black Americans who are speaking out publicly, such as FR's own Lloyd Marcus, may be the greatest examples of "Profiles in Courage" of our day.
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