Sally A. Winn, vice president of Feminists for Life of America, urged students, faculty and community members to pursue an anti-abortion agenda Tuesday evening in a speech titled "Refuse to Chose: Reclaiming Feminism."
Winn challenged her audience to tackle what she called the root causes of abortion -- the lack of financial and emotional support shown to expectant mothers.
"If we come together we can systematically eliminate the root causes that lead to abortion," Winn said.
According to Winn, 1.3 million surgical abortions are performed in the United States every year and one in five is performed on a college student.
Winn, who delivered her now-10-year-old daughter while she was a student at Indiana University, attributed that statistic to the lack of resources for pregnant women on college campuses.
Winn called for better campus housing options, affordable day-care programs and maternity insurance coverage on college plans.
"No one wants to see a woman drop out of school," Winn said. She also criticized the continued lack of paid maternity leaves and job sharing options in corporate America.
Winn considers herself both a feminist and a pro-life activist, and said that the two terms are complementary. She criticized several modern self-proclaimed feminists who claim that abortion is the most fundamental right of women.
According to Winn, these modern feminists and the "Second Wave" feminists who brought about Roe v. Wade have led women to believe that they must reject their identity as women and mothers in order to achieve career goals.
"Why should we have to sacrifice our children?" Winn asked.
She lauded Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others as the original leaders of both the women's movement and the pro-life movement.
"The suffragists worked to change society to accept women. Second-wave feminists sold out," Winn said. "They worked to change women so that they would be accepted by society."
Many women have neither the choice nor the option to deliver and care for their children in our current society, Winn said.
Others, though, expressed different views.
Giovanna Munafo, head of the campus Center for Women and Gender, told The Dartmouth that "we [at the CWG] define choice as all choices, including carrying a child to term and giving a child up for adoption," in reference to Winn's message.
"A full range of choices are not represented in a 'pro-life' perspective," Munafo said.
Winn responded to Munafo's statement, saying, "I have a hard time with the way 'choice' is used. All choices aren't equal, but all people are. A true choice doesn't harm anyone."
Winn thanked the pro-life members of the audience for taking a stance that is generally very unpopular on college campuses, and she thanked pro-choice students for coming to hear her take on the other side of the issue. She encouraged the groups to work together.
