Good article. I have written a lengthy response.
Sterilization, Murders, Suicides: Bans Haven’t Slowed Abortions, and They’re Costing Lives: Is this what the “pro-life” movement wanted?
Sartre has an answer for us. Let me paraphrase:
Never believe that anti-abortionists are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since she believes in words. The anti-abortionists have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.
The "pro-life" movement as a whole is not actually pro-life. Even liberal activists understand this and they constantly point out the "pro-life" movement's hypocrisy. However, pointing out hypocrisy has been largely ineffective. Maybe it works on some individuals, but it's the wrong approach to pro-abortion activism. "Pro-life" is a rhetorical trick that shouldn't be taken seriously. So instead of accepting the anti-abortionist's concern trolling at face value, we need to do our own analysis. Another favorite quote on this forum by Stafford Beer:
The purpose of a system is what it does.
Abortion medication can now only be obtained from underground feminist organizations in some states. So the anti-abortion laws have had the effect of criminalizing feminism. Women are twice as likely as men to get sterilized to avoid the risk of an unwanted pregnancy. So the anti-abortion laws have increased the risk of being a woman. Fascists are now aiming to ban contraception. This would further increase the risk of being a woman, greatly reduce the sexual autonomy of women, and reaffirm patriarchal domination over women. Actually none of this is gender-specific and would affect anyone with a womb. So the anti-abortion movement is anti-transmasculinity[1] made concrete: gender fascists want to re-gender anyone with a womb that isn't a woman back into the social role of a woman. So the anti-abortion movement is also a violently transphobic (specifically, trans people assigned female at birth) movement. Many pregnant people have to drive hours out of state to get an abortion. People will always be able to flee somewhere for an abortion, but fascists want to make the number of safe states as low as possible. This is a class and freedom of movement issue. And more proof that anti-abortionism is about control over other people. Forced pregnancy also makes it harder to leave abusive partners, abusive partners are more likely to kill you if you're pregnant, and anti-abortion laws increase suicide (social murder) rates. So the anti-abortion movement is a femicidal movement.
In conclusion, the "pro-life" movement is simply the pro-patriarchy movement and must be treated as such. They do not care about lives. They care about dominating and killing anyone that is not a cisgender man. The "pro-choice" movement needs to recognize this, build solidarity between the oppressed genders where it's possible[2][3], support radical bodily autonomy, and organize towards the destruction of the patriarchy.
[1] I'm not sure if this is the right word. Transphobia is too broad here, but transmasculine is probably too strict. However, anti-transafabism just sounds terrible.
[2] There are some activists who have largely given up on trans men, since trans men are men and can benefit from wielding misogyny. Well, they are also oppressed by cissexual society that wants to re-gender them as women, so I can't agree with this wholesale rejection.
[3] Obviously allies are great. I don't think we should #KillAllMen, although I do think we should abolish the male sex (don't worry: we should abolish sex in general). Vigilance against misogyny and transphobia in the movement is what's required.
