-
Susan
B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were the driving force behind
the women's rights movement. Their partnership was formed in 1851, after
their separate fights for women's rights, temperance, and anti-slavery
programs led only to frustration. They became the most powerful team
in the history of women. Together they founded a newspaper called The
Revolution, to voice their opinions on women's rights. The
Revolution and most other feminist publications of the last
century, refused to join in the common practice of printing advertisements
for thinly-disguised patent medicine abortifacients.
Note that these feminists did not oppose abortion because it was
unsafe. Their argument was that abortion takes a human life, and ultimately
hinders justice for women.
-
Susan B. Anthony
-
"
She called abortion "child-murder." (The Revolution - 4(1):4
July 8, 1869)
-
"We
want prevention, not merely punishment. We must reach the root of
the evil...It is practiced by those whose innermost souls revolt from
the dreadful dead." (The Revolution - 4(1):4 July 8, 1869)
- "All the articles
on this subject that I have read have been from men. They denounce women
as alone guilty, and never include man in any plans for the remedy."
(The Revolution-4(5):4 February 5, 1868)
-
"
She classed it with the killing of newborns as "infanticide."
(The Revolution - 1(5):1 February 5, 1868)
-
"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."
(Letter to Julia Ward Howe, October 16, 1871, recorded in Howe's
diary at Harvard University Library)
- "There must
be a remedy even for such a crying evil as this. But where shall it
be found, at least where begin, if not in the complete enfranchisement
and elevation of women?" (_The Revolution_ 1(10):146-7 March 12,
1868
-
"[This]
subject lies deeper down in woman's wrongs than any other...I
hesitate not to assert that most of [the responsibility
for] this crime lies at the door of the male sex."
(The Revolution - 1(14):215-6 April 6, 1868)
-
"When
a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that
there is something wrong in society-so when a woman destroys
the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either
by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged."
The Revolution - 3(9):138-9 September 2, 1869)
-
" The first woman to attempt to run for President was
a strong opponent of abortion. Woodhull's and Claffin's
Weekly, proclaimed, "The rights of children as individuals
begin while yet they remain in the fetus." (2(6):4
December 24, 1870)
-
"Every
woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear
an unwished-for-child, not think of murdering one before
its birth." (Wheeling, West Virginia Evening Standard,
November 17, 1875)
-
"Child
murderers practice their profession without let or hindrance,
and open infant butcheries unquestioned...Is there no remedy
for all this ante-natal child murder?...Perhaps there will
come a time when...an unmarried mother will not be despised
because of her motherhood...and when the right of the unborn
to be born will not be denied or interfered with."
(Woodhull's and Claffin's Weekly, November 19, 1870)
-
"The
custom of procuring abortions has reached such appalling
proportions in America as to be beyond belief...So great
is the misery of the working classes that seventeen abortions
are committed in every one hundred pregnancies." (Mother
Earth, 1911)
-
"
The author of the original Equal Rights Amendment (1923)
opposed the later trend inking it with abortion. A colleague
recalls her expressing the opinion that "abortion is
the ultimate exploitation of women."
-
"As
early as 1792, Mary Wollenstonecraft wrote "A Vindication
of the Rights of Women," which Susan B. Anthony admired
enough to serialize in the _Revolution_. After decrying,
in scathing 18th century terms, the sexual exploitation
of women, she says, "Women becoming, consequently,
weaker...than they ought to be...have not sufficient strength
to discharge the first duty of a mother; and sacrificing
to lasciviousness the parental affection...either destroy
the embryo in the womb, or cast it off when born. Nature
in every thing demands respect, and those who violate her
laws seldom violate them with impunity."
Spiritual
Adoption of the Unborn
To
help stop the anti-life push in the United States of America,
the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, encouraged the spiritual
adoption of the unborn child. This is done by praying daily
for a period of 9 months (or one year), for an unborn child's
life to be spared from abortion and be allowed to continue
to live. You can name this child that you have spiritually
adopted, and daily pray the following prayer:
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,
I love you very much. I beg you to spare the life of the
unborn child (name),that I have spiritually adopted, that
is in danger of an abortion.
We
Entrust our Mission to Our Lady of Guadalupe,
Protectress of the Unborn
O Mary, bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life:
Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers
of babies to be born, of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out
of misguided mercy.
Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel
of life
with honesty and love to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel
as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives and the courage to bear witness to
it
resolutely, in order to build, together with all people of
good will,
the civilization of truth and love, to the praise and glory
of God,
the Creator and lover of life.
Pope John Paul ll
Encyclical Letter "The Gospel of Life"
Given in Rome, on March 25, the Solemnity of the Annunciation
of the Lord, in the year 1995.
|
|
