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I can understand your veiwpoints as a "pro-life feminist," since I came to your site looking for information in writing a term paper about how female birth control contributes to the sexual objectification of women. the Pill was supported in it's developement by women who believed women could never be truly liberated until they could control their own fertility. While it has in many respects served to only "save" women from men's sexuality or subject them to it, while continuing to supress their own, to some extent when attempting massive social change (the dissolution of patriarchy as a valid world-view), it the thought (political movement) that counts. Though I may believe that the Pill contributes to the sexual objectification of women, I think we would be in a very bad situation without it. I think the same is true of abortion, it's legality must be treated as a step in the right direction, even if it has some negative consequences. Do we want to move forward into an era where women can make informed choices about their fertility, where over population is no longer a problem because every person currently on this planet understands the responsibility of bringing a child into this world? Or do we want to take a jump back to back alley abortions, and the world of "father knows best"? Social change can't happen all at once, women have been oppressed for thousands of years, and any steps in a positive direction are steps that must be made. Don't try to deny so many women a choice that may save their lives (in a literal or figurative sense) in order to make your point now. I hope you're doing more for positive change than spending all your time on the web.

There is one major point missed in the comparison of the Pill and legal abortion -- an abortion kills another human being. Yes, women should make INFORMED choices about their fertility. Does "writer" then, support women being informed prior to having an abortion -- something that many pro-choice advocates fight against? Does she support women being shown their ultrasound when they ask, prior to an abortion, or does she support the current practice of women being denied that right, even when they request it? Does she support parents being informed when their minor child decides to undergo an abortion?

Regarding population, the population increase is due mostly to the invention of medicines which enable people to live longer. In fact, the birth rate has decreased. Population experts (don't have the exact source handy, sorry) estimate that the population will soon stop increasing, will level off, and will then start to decrease.

Abortion, if it were merely a way for women to control fertility or to avoid pregnancy WITHOUT infringing on the rights of another person would be one thing. But what "writer" suggests is that because women were oppressed for years, women should then turn around and oppress their own children to avoid being oppressed themselves. Were women oppressed in 1970? 1971? Abortion was illegal back then. Why do we assume that the only way to make advances as women, we must have the power to destroy someone smaller and wealer than ourselves? It is THAT mentality which lead to the oppression of women! Killing one's own offspring is not just controlling fertility, it is controlling fertility by oppressing someone else. Do we, as women, want to follow in the footsteps of those who oppressed us for so many years? If legal abortion is supposed to save the life of so many women, then why are more women dying from abortion now than the years right before legalization? What about the unborn women who have died from abortion - are they somehow less worthy of life, merely because they reside in the womb?

Also, the comment about my time on the web -- while I do not spend all my time on the web, I do spend quite a bit of time online because my professions is that of a web designer. I wonder if "writer" asks those who develop pro-choice web sites, or the people who e-mail me about their pro-choice views, if they are doing something more constructive than spending all their time on the web?
- Carolyn -
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