It was a typical, frigid January morning in Hanover, and one female Dartmouth student could be seen trekking across the snowdrifts of New Hampshire tundra to get to Dick's House. Once there, she sat down to talk with a physician's assistant. Through chattering teeth, the student began to sketch out her predicament.
She had stopped using her birth control pills a few days earlier. After all, she and her boyfriend had been fighting for a long time now, so what was the point of keeping up the regimen? Yet, as luck would have it, she and he had reconciled their differences the previous night and had had unprotected sex.
Now she faced a serious dilemma. Was she pregnant? She didn't know. But if she was, what then . . . ? Not knowing what to do, the student had braved the wintry day to beseech advice of the College's medical personnel.
The physician's assistant was more than happy to oblige. Even as the girl's voice broke off, the woman, poised and unruffled, began to dish out her counsel. "We can give you what's called the morning-after pill or emergency contraception," she said, in as assuaging a tone as she could muster.
The student was taken aback. Well aware of medical studies indicating that such emergency contraception is actually a chemical abortion, the student remonstrated: "So, I don't understand. It's not an abortion?"
"No," came the assuring, but duplicitous, answer.
Apparently swayed by such pettifoggery, the student hesitantly agreed to start taking the emergency contraception. After further assurances from the physician's assistant that she was pursuing the only plausible course of action, the student left.
Unfortunately for Dick's House, this student was not the confused soul she pretended to be, not the scared girl whose fears the physician's assistants were so keen on fanning. She was, instead, an undercover reporter. A hidden recorder taped every word of the conversation.
In a later expos based on the tape, Dick's House was condemned for single-mindedly pushing chemical, and if need be surgical, abortion as the only possible response to a student's pregnancy. During the entire conversation, no other option had been presented. Not adoption. Not access to pregnancy help centers. Only chemical abortion. Although the undercover student had not even requested emergency contraception, it had all but been foisted upon her.
Sadly, this is far from the only case of universities hiding pregnancy options from their female students. Too often, these girls are treated like diseased cattle; if they become pregnant, they are herded into abortion clinics or duped into swallowing dangerous poisons to induce a chemical abortion. No mention is made of adoption centers in the area. Speaking of generous and reputable pregnancy help centers is considered treasonous. And contact information for those who would gladly help the young mother complete her education is guarded like ICBM launch codes. Rather than seek the wishes and health of the mother-to-be, university health clinics make themselves cattle cars shipping young women off to painful surgery and their children off to excruciating butchery.
This is betrayal of women, ironically spearheaded by self-styled "feminist" organizations such as Planned Parenthood and the National Organization of Women. Having enslaved themselves to the male-dominated abortion lobby, these organizations blindly tow the men's line that abortion is the end-all and the be-all of the women's rights movement. In so doing, they short-sightedly forsake seeking equality in other spheres.
But women seek and deserve full equality, not just the commerical version upheld by abortion kingpins. They want economic empowerment through equal opportunities for pay and position in the workplace. They want flex time and job sharing, comprehensive health care, maternity benefits and parental leave. They yearn for affordable childcare that will enable them to complete their education and work outside the home. They want deadbeat dads to be held responsible for child support.
Luckily for women, some real feminists have taken the bull by the horns on these issues. They have pushed legislation through Congress that guarantees mothers leave time from work to take care of their newborn children. They've had the federal government begin to garnishee deadbeat dads' wages for child support. And they have put in the legwork and made the calls that help ensure that bureaucrats at every level actually implement these policies.
These paradigm-shifting feminists are not to be found working for N.O.W. Not for NARAL. Not for Planned Parenthood. For these organizations force their members into a mindless lockstep metered by the chant "abortion, abortion, abortion." They simply don't begrudge their members time to seek the much more expansive equality that early feminists like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony sacrificed selflessly for a hundred years ago. No, no. The unconquerable phalanx of feminists that are bringing discrimination to its knees are to be found touting such names as Feminists for Life of America and Silent No More.
You see, these feminists find that their power to effect change lies in their being pro-life. In this they echo the conclusions reached by the women who first rallied American women around the standard of equality. These luminaries realized that abortion was the one "supreme violence" by means of which 19th Century society had most successfully kept women enchained. Accordingly, they set their eyes fast on ending abortion. Once they prevailed against the male lawmakers of their day on that issue, no stone would again lay unturned. Voting, equal education, workplace revolution -- all followed on the heels of this first pro-life women's movement.
One woman who has taken up the mantle of the early pro-life feminists graced our campus Tuesday evening. As an indomitable individual, Sally Winn has long been at the forefront of securing true choices for all women. As vice-president of Feminists for Life of America, she continues to rally women around the country to demand the fullness of equality enshrined in our Constitution.
Those of us fortunate enough to listen to Ms. Winn's talk on Tuesday know how vital it is to promote a type of feminism that works. Luckily for us, our feminist forebears already discovered the path by which feminism has won its most resounding successes: Start by being pro-life. They now offer us the opportunity to follow them along this road. With it so clearly marked and its end goals so illumined, let us not fear accompanying them. Step by step, we shall build a culture of life and respect. Step by step, we shall advance women's rights. And step by step, we shall create a warm, accepting environment for student-mothers on campus. Let them come in; it's cold out there in the indifference of a Hanover clinic.
Chris Galiardo is a guest columnist.
