Pro-Woman Answers to Pro-Choice Questions^TM

What if her partner, friends or family have abandoned her?
Or what if she is poor?

Lack of support often coerces women into abortion. As pro-life feminists, we choose to support and empower women rather than abandon women.

A woman who is pregnant needs to know that there are perfect strangers who will care for her even if the people she counts on the most have let her down. She needs information about child support laws that prohibit coercion by the father either by physical force or by threats to withhold child support.

Universities should support marital and single parenting choices as well as adoption options.

Feminists for Life’s College Outreach Program focuses on resources—housing, child care, maternity coverage in student health care, telecommuting options, financial aid, etc.—so women aren't forced to choose between sacrificing their education or career and sacrificing their children.

We do not eliminate poverty by eliminating poor women’s children. It is degrading to poor women to expect or imply that their children aren't welcome. We believe that poor women deserve the same support and life-affirming alternatives as wealthy women.

A woman who is pregnant needs to know that there are pregnancy care centers listed in the “abortion alternatives” section of the yellow pages that provide direct assistance and coordinate public and private assistance.

Abortion is not an enriching experience. An abortion won't get a woman a better job or get her out of a bad (for example, abusive) situation.

And what has Feminists for Life done?

Feminists for Life has worked to prevent the coercion of women into unwanted abortions. FFL consulted on the groundbreaking Coercive Abortion Prevention Act introduced by Michigan women legislators in 2006. The five-bill package identifies very specific forms of coercion, from financial threats to physical violence, which could result in jail time and/or fines.

FFL has done other work to prevent coerced abortions due to threats to withhold child support, instead encouraging the active support of fathers in the lives of their children. FFL has sought to educate women and men regarding the rights and responsibilities of fathers. And FFL was the only pro-life group to successfully advocate for the Enhanced Child Support Enforcement Act of 1996, which will help streamline the collection and distribution of child support, establish uniform laws governing interstate child support cases, and expand penalties for child support delinquency.

Since 1994, Feminists for Life has led the revolution on campus to meet the needs of college-age women, who have the highest rate of abortion, and redirect the debate towards action for women.

• FFL hosted the first-ever FFL Pregnancy Resource Forum in 1997 and developed creative tools to evaluate and spark discussion about the lack of services for pregnant and parenting students, including FFL's Pregnancy Resource Survey,^SM resulting in concrete improvements on top campuses across the country.
• FFL has also helped to introduce legislation to put into hyper-drive pro-woman solutions on campus. FFL worked to introduce the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Pregnant and Parenting Student Services Act (2005-06), which, if passed, would provide $10 million in grants to 200 colleges and universities for annual pregnancy and parenting resource forums and a central office to coordinate and promote ongoing resources and support on and off campus.
• And on the anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s birth in 2006, FFL held the first-ever Capitol Hill briefing on the needs of 4.5 million parenting students, and millions of students who become pregnant and need resources and support for marital and single parenting choices and various adoption options.

Feminists for Life also works for low-income women. FFL was the only pro-life group active in a unique coalition of women's groups to successfully fight child exclusion provisions in welfare reform. (The “family cap” was later tested on poor women and teens in New Jersey and proven to significantly increase abortions.) And FFL was the only pro-life and women's group to actively champion the New York state model program to help working poor pregnant women receive prenatal care through the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

Because women deserve better,

Serrin M. Foster
President
Feminists for Life
www.feministsforlife.org

P.S. Next week's question: What if she just doesn't want it?

"Abortion is a reflection that we have not met the needs of women. Women deserve better than abortion."
REFUSE TO CHOOSE^® WOMEN DESERVE BETTER^®
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