Roe v. Wade, The Supreme Court, and Feminism

No one can redefine feminism as anti-male and pro-abortion. That’s not how it works. Feminism isn’t a label: It’s an action. Feminist isn’t what you call yourself; it’s how you behave in the world.

The memo defining feminism (you got yours, right?) says, “Feminism is the radical belief that women are human beings no better—and no worse—than men.” It includes this line as well: “Feminism is the belief that women are not just a way for men to produce more men via the use of our bodies.”

Feminism is an informed and deliberate undertaking embraced by women and men who realize that denying women rights and silencing women’s voices does nobody any good. Feminism recognizes that, especially in today’s political climate, rights won by women must be defended because they’re always in jeopardy.

While political climate deniers like Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Alito, Thomas, and Coney Barrett, who signed on to the majority opinion, might refute that threat, they’re either ignoring the facts or inventing alternative ones.

The phrase “individual feminism,” thrown around by some, is weirdly contradictory, like saying “party of one.” Feminism is a collective endeavor where systemic and historical biases toward women are recognized and defied.

Yes, there are deeply conservative and publicly visible women whom I respect in many ways, but they kid themselves by believing they’ve “transcended” the gender divide.

They believe that feminism has nothing to do with them because their success has nothing to do with feminism. They’re wrong.

Without suffrage, without the women’s liberation movement and without ongoing efforts to preserve and extend intersectional feminism, which embraces the differences in women including race, ethnicity, class, religion, and sexuality, they’d be pregnant with a 13th or 14th child, unable to own property, unable to read, unable to vote, and unable to speak in public.

Nobody sheds the systemic effects of dehumanization the way a dog shakes water off its coat. Not when they were once written into the laws and carved into the codes of civilization.

Women who ignore the fact that others, their forefathers and foremothers both, fought like wildcats and banshees for their right to vote, run for office, and become public figures, are freeloading on history.

Some women, including a swath of adolescents, worry that being labeled “feminist” might make them seem assertive, aggressive, or unattractive and declare they’d prefer to be seen as “humanists.”

You can call yourself whatever you want, but I’m not buying it. To blur “feminism” into “humanism” is to usurp women’s voices once again, to make the singular feminine into the so-called universal masculine. It’s a trick; it’s a dodge; it’s a gimmick.

Making abortion a criminal offense won’t touch everyone. Women and girls from rich families and women with their own money have always been able to terminate unwanted pregnancies. If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, women with money and connections will fly to places where abortion is legal.

It’s women who are uneducated and ashamed of their bodies, poor women, young women and scared women who will be affected by the overturning of Roe v. Wade and it will wreck their lives. Because they, too, will stop their pregnancies. But they won’t be able to escape to another country; they’ll just destroy themselves, right here in the U.S.

As for being pro-abortion? There’s no such thing: It’s like being pro-chemotherapy. But let’s agree on one point: Unless human beings have control over their bodies, they are enslaved. That is in the feminist memo, too.

And it is written into the Constitution under Roe v. Wade.