The hypocrisy of pro-life
The anti-abortion movement masked by a false narrative: they care about lives.
Graphic by Megan Serfontein, Copy Editor
McKenna Ryan, Staff Writer
The recent overturn of Roe v. Wade was the click of the chain attaching to the collar that extremists, who walk over women, will use to walk women. It is the final link to the chain of efforts to falsely utilize the influence of science to rationalize refuting women of their basic human rights and perpetrating interminable harm. These extremists are members of the anti-choice movement who have attempted to brand themselves as “pro-life,” however, their rhetoric is false and outright hypocritical.
Pseudoscience-based abortion bans are fraudulent and ideologically, rather than factually, influence healthcare decisions. In 2019, 6 states enacted a “fetal heartbeat” bill that seeks to ban abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy. Though doctors can detect pulsing cells in embryos as early as six weeks of pregnancy, a “heartbeat” cannot identify this rhythm, because, well, embryos literally don’t have hearts. According to Dr. Jennifer Kerns, at around six weeks, “cardiac activity,” communication between a cluster of developing cardiac cells, is detectable. Part of the determination to popularize the term “heartbeat bill” is the conservative determination to advance a much earlier, false standard of viability. The majority of doctors use 24 weeks as a general rule for viability, therefore, claiming any activity detected by ultrasound as a heartbeat in the six-week period is personifying the embryo into something it's not. Pro-life activists are detrimentally over-simplifying fetal development for political gain, and according to polls, this false pro-life rhetoric framing is working.
The false pro-life rhetoric masks the cherry-picking of instances where lives matter, especially when guns are in question. On May 24, only 10 days after a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., a school shooter murdered two teachers and 19 students in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. This became the 27th school shooting and one of over 200 mass shootings across the U.S. in 2022 alone. Since the first time an instance of this matter occurred, a change in legislature would have prevented over 214 shootings. As the “pro-life” movement preaches the protection of children, in 2020, firearms replaced motor vehicle accidents as the number one cause of death among children in the U.S.
“Pro-life” activists portray a common belief that life is precious in all circumstances unless society deems you undesirable. In 2021, Texas state Rep. Bryan Slaton filed a bill that would charge women who receive an abortion with assault or homicide, which carries the state's death sentence. On April 12, Okla. Gov. Kevin Stitt signed an almost identical law in which performing or receiving an abortion is a felony earning up to 10 years in prison, however, with an exception for rape and incest. They are so concerned for the right to life that they want to turn women who end their pregnancies into murderers, felons, and even death row inmates. So, if conservative America is “pro-life,” why is this ideology only applicable to the fetus during pregnancy?
While there is no simple, direct answer, it is known that American politics revolve around the colonialist doctrine of patriarchy and capitalism. Why doesn't the U.S. ban guns to save lives? Well, the firearm industry employs 169,523 Americans and generates 206,296 jobs, not to mention the $7.86 billion that the government earns from the industry in taxes. So why would the U.S. oppose abortions? Maybe it has to do with the fact that in 2020 the U.S. had its record lowest fertility rate with 56 births per 1,000 women. A nation needs a teeming economy to survive and a heap of laborers to sustain it.
“Pro-lifers” conveniently disregard the fact that women all over the world go to great lengths to end unwanted pregnancies. Outlawing abortion doesn’t affect how often women get abortions, it affects how safe the procedures are. So if outlawing abortion and even jailing women doesn’t actually decrease abortion rates, what does? Access to affordable and reliable contraception, a culture where sex isn’t stigmatized, where women are equal, and where reproductive rights aren’t up for debate. Unfortunately, the American “pro-life” movement is against all of this.
Thanks to “pro-life” regression slashing money from healthcare centers, such as Planned Parenthood, and diverting medically unqualified religious groups because they see these places as abortion factories. However, in 2019, abortions accounted for only 3% of all services provided by Planned Parenthood. They offer a wide variety of reliable methods to prevent pregnancy, such as IUDs and birth control. We know that contraception prevents unwanted pregnancies, which decreases the rate of abortions. So why don’t pro-life organizations push for contraception to be free and widely available? Why don’t “pro-life” centers, billing themselves as alternatives to Planned Parenthood, provide birth control? Because it’s not about decreasing rates of abortion. If it were, these groups would support a widespread of feminist propositions. Nor is it about “life” at all. If it was, “pro-life” legislators in Texas wouldn’t even suggest the execution of women on behalf of terminating a pregnancy.
Being “pro-life” is simply about misogyny and control. The ultimate goal is a system in which men are at the head of the family, women are submissive, sex is a male privilege, and pregnancy is a woman’s burden. Making it harder for women to plan their pregnancies, and criminalizing ending them, means women have far less control over the rest of their lives: the ability to go to school, work, marry who they want (or not marry at all), walk down whatever path they choose. Meanwhile the children they “saved” drown, starve, and suffer to death.
