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Their emphasis on eliminating the reasons why women choose abortion has influenced the whole movement. "If you focus only on trying to convince people that the unborn child is a human being, then you may not get as far as you would like," says Ruse. "There is a broader drama going on." Many young people, Ruse says, choose abortion because they don't have the resources or support to care for a child and because society views abortion as an acceptable alternative to an unplanned pregnancy.

Feminists for Life works hardest to address this problem on college campuses. Foster says colleges will provide women with information about sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, gay rights, and violence against women, but no resources for pregnant women such as child care or maternity leave. Even married undergrad and graduate students who inquire about pregnancy resources are greeting with "I'm sorry" and the phone number to an abortion clinics, Foster told CT. "That's not 'choice'," she says.

In addition, Foster cites a Gallup poll which found that 73 percent of women leave college pro-choice, while 37 percent of high school graduates are pro-choice. "Women in college are having their first abortions," Foster says. And that's where our future politicians, lawyers, jurists, and businesswomen are being educated.

Feminists for Life also addresses intellectually pro-life arguments that are often left out of the classroom. "They do a lot of speaking on college campuses, where students will not hear any of [the pro-life views of early feminists] in their women's studies classes," Ruse says.

Many women don't feel abortion is a "choice," but rather something they are forced into if they want to continue an education or career. "Feminists for Life does generally agree with what would traditionally be thought of as women's rights issues, or the concerns of career and professional women," says Wright. "They bring support to women along that college-career track, looking at what these women need in order to not be pressured into having an abortion."

"The pro-choice feminist line that's becoming increasingly dominant is, 'Of course women will use abortion because they want to have true vocations, they want to pursue education,'" says Amy Laura Hall, an ethicist at Duke Divinity School and 2004 recipient of Feminists for Life's Remarkable Pro-Life Woman in the Academy award.

Women "have to make a choice between motherhood and forgoing school and work outside the home, or choosing school and work outside the home and aborting," says Hall. "It's as if we completely lost the original effort of the feminist movement to bring the needs of mothers and children into the public sphere."

"People think [abortion] is necessary for women's advancement," says Foster. "Women have got to stop settling for less. Women have children. Get over it," she says. "It's a goal that most women share. They want to be able to work. It's exciting, but they want to be able to also have a child. It's about balancing work and family."

Although women have been welcomed into the workplace, children are not, Hall says. Modern feminists see abortion as a backup to contraception so that they can compete in their careers. In an article on the rise of abortion rates in Britain, Hall quotes one abortion advocate who says, "Women today want to plan their families and, when contraception fails, they are prepared to use abortion to get back in control of their lives. Motherhood is just one among many options open to women, and it is not surprising that younger women want to prioritize other things. We should stop seeing abortion as a problem and start seeing it as a legitimate and sensible solution to the problem of unwanted pregnancy."

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July (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49