“Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women.”
Feminist Alica Paul, author of the original Equal Rights Amendment (1923) who “opposed the later trend of linking the E.R.A. with abortion.” Feminists for Life.
“[This abortion] 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.”
Feminist Matilda Gage, The Revolution, 1(14):215-6 April 9, 1868
“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 if off when born. Nature in every thing demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom violate them with impunity.”
Feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, after decrying the sexual exploitation of women in A Vindication of the Rights of Women, around 1792
“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.”
Feminist Sarah Norton, Woodhull’s and Claffin’s Weekly, November 19, 1870
“Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child, nor think of murdering one before its birth.”
Victoria Woodhull, first female presidential candidate and adamant opponent of abortion, Wheeling, West Virginia Evening Standard, November 17, 1875
“The rights of children as individuals begin while yet they remain the foetus.”
Victoria Woodhull, first female presidential candidate and adamant opponent of abortion, Woodhull’s and Claflin’s Weekly 2(6):4 December 24, 1870
“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.”
Feminist Mattie Brinkerhoff, The Revolution, 4(9):138-9 September 2, 1869
“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.”
Feminist Emma Goldman, Mother Earth, 1911
“There must be a remedy even for such a crying evil as this [abortion]. But where shall it be found, at least where begin, if not in the complete enfranchisement and elevation of women?”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Revolution, 1(10):146-7 March 12, 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.”
Feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Letter to Julia Ward Howe, October 16, 1873, recorded in Howe’s diary at Harvard University Library
“Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!”
Feminist and suffragist Susan B. Anthony, The Revolution