If anyone had asked me to express my thoughts on reproductive rights in this country thirty years ago, I would have pulled the Twizzler from my mouth, adjusted my knee socks, and asked through a toothless sneer for the question to be repeated. Or if anyone had asked me what my feelings were on the Roe v. Wade case while it was being decided, I—being only a twinkle in my mother’s eye at that time–would have had to respectfully decline comment.
Of course, over time–and with God’s ever-present grace–I have grown up, made mistakes of my own, and observed a conflicted culture where easy abortions and contraceptions distort conjugal love, shake men and women’s self esteem, and destroy God’s children before their life even begins. And consequently, here in 2012 if those questions were asked of me, I would in fact have a response. And it wouldn’t be pretty.
Of course, I would not expect all women of the United States to agree; I would, however, find peace in the mere possibility that because I live in a country open to the voices of its people, the views of this mother of four could maybe–just maybe–impact the choices of future generations.
That’s why it surprises me when I repeatedly hear from more liberally-minded professional women–the same ones who are supposed to be so open to free expression–repeatedly tell us conservative women that such ambitions are no longer welcome.
Most recently at the Democratic National Convention, for example, Georgetown law student and Women’s Reproductive Rights Advocate Sandra Fluke reiterated what many liberals have been espousing since the Catholic Church began challenging the Health and Human Services Mandate forcing religious institutions to fund birth control and abortifacients despite their religious convictions. Specifically, the narrative adopted by Fluke and others is that because “our generation” has already fought these battles over reproductive rights and “won,” such challenges are moot and an appauling attempt to rewind women’s progress.
For me, Fluke’s comments make manifest the frighening reality of the slippery slope theory my law professors at Notre Dame warned me about. Never mind that the claim that these specific issues have been already decided is an outright falsehood. Most rational people at least recognize that the legal rights provided women to use birth control and have early-term abortions without government interference have never given women a right to have publicly-funded birth control or abortions from those whose conscience forbids them. What is more disturbing, however, is the tyrannical attitude of these women against conservative women like me. They seem to say to us, “Women before us won one battle for us, and now you have to sit quiet while we do whatever we want.”
This press-forward-at-all costs attitude fails to recognize that there is in fact a natural ebb and flow in America politics that allows for one side of the political aisle to influence the other and hopefully bring a balance that bolsters freedom for all. When women like Fluke attempt to dominate the scene and suggest female voices in our generation contrary to her own are useless and an attempt to move backwards, it undermines the landscape of America and the freedom it serves.
Women’s rights is simply not a sphere relegated only to women like Fluke. And once Fluke and the others realize that truth, perhaps at that time America can indeed move forward.
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