Myth: Women oppose abortion in equal or greater numbers than men.

[politicat]

Fact: 70% of the activists, and nearly all of the leadership of the forced-birth movement are men. Photo documentation from clinic protest pictures and records of non-profit organizations associated with the movement show that most names associated and faces associated are male faces. (Amarillo Globe News, www.cpforlife.org, www.cnn.com, IRS records for Operation Rescue West, Operation Save America, google image searches.) In one famous case of hoodwinked leadership, 75% of the leadership of Concerned Women for America (an anti-feminist and anti-choice organization allegedly for women) is male.

In the documentary, Fetal Positions (a documentary about clinic violence), 85% of the protesters seen were male. Since footage was shot not only in Milwaukee, but in Boston, the representation is decent. (Fetal Positions, directed by Stacey Benoit. May be hard to find in the US; ran on French television and Free Speech TV.)

Photos taken in 2002 at a clinic in Wichita, Kansas by clinic escorts show that 66% of the protesters were men, and of the "hard-core" protesters, 90% (18 of 20 who had protested repeatedly) were men. (www.maggotpunks.com)

In my personal experience as both a clinic escort and a Planned Parenthood client, the ratios of 2 to 4 men for every woman protester holds true. Other times I have encountered anti-abortion types, they have been primarily male; the women are usually cowed wives or children who are forced or brainwashed into participation.

Yes, there are women who oppose and protest abortion. But since the leadership is primarily male, and the funding is overwhelmingly male, the situation begs the question: Who controls the movement? From looking at the data, it's not women.

[Erika]

1. It's the Schiavo thing. GOP males want to control family matters

as Molly Ivins points out. The Republican right wing certainly have no respect for women. The South Dakotan legislator, Napoli, will determine which women deserves an abortion. GOP women are known for their Stepford wife role.

[w4rma]

2. It is and always was about power. Most things in politics are about power

over other people.

[JWS]

3. Classic example of

men trying to dominate women.

[madeline_con]

4. It's interesting, but really not surprising that....

the type of men who would control their wives' reproductive rights would be in charge of an anti-choice movement.

(I always wondered why so many OLD men, like it has anything to do with them!)

[musical_soul]

5. Brainwashing a child into participating in the movement.

I honestly can't think of anything MORE SICK.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

6. What a purely asinine post.

Ask anyone who's taken Statistics 101 whether or not there is ANY scientific validity to those "findings".

Where should we begin with the problems here? A short list:

• How did the photographer decide to take the photographs?
  
• Did he photograph every protestor?
  
• Why were those specific protests selected?
  
• What was the sample size?
  

God, you could go on, and on, and on, and on, and ON coming up with problems with this farce of a "study".

You know what though? If it makes you feel better at night to say that it's only men that oppose abortion rights, be my guest. But it's far, FAR from the truth, okay?

[politicat]

8. Cut the ad hominem attacks and try Zogby, then.

Zogby's Jan 23 release on abortion for the US polled 5640 individuals and has a margin of error of +/-1.3%

http://interactive.zogby.com/

Among women, 50% said they favored the availability of abortion in all cases, while another 8% said they favor its availability but do not want the government to pay for it. Thirty-eight percent of women said they opposed abortion outright, or with certain exceptions. Among men, 59% said they oppose abortion completely or with certain exceptions, while 35% said they favor it always. Another 12% said they favor it but do not want the government to pay for it.

Add it up: 58% of women favor abortion in ALL cases, whether or not the government pays for it.

59% of men oppose abortion completely.

Pew Research, August, 2005: the people for whom reporductive rights is a critical issue? Women between 18-49. (76% consider it a major concern. There's an 18 point gap between male and female peers - only 58% of men consider it a major concern.)

The only studies that show that women oppose abortion in greater numbers than men are the studies paid for by conservative, anti-choice organizations. Bias? Where?

And if it makes YOU feel like a liberal to believe that men support women's rights, then go ahead and sleep on that fantasy. But you're wrong and the numbers don't lie. Men control the anti-choice movement, men make up the greater number of protesters, and men are the ones who implement the laws restricting women's rights. Men are the ones who oppose women's rights in all areas, not just reproduction. From the beginning, it's been men who opposed women's progress from inferior member and lesser being to co-equal participant in an egalitarian society.

When abortion was made illegal initially, it was a action of male domination because it was specifically aimed at preventing women from using non-university trained medical professionals (usually professionals who used empirical evidence rather than 2000 year old Greek and Latin texts) in an attempt to commodify healing. Most of those empirically based professionals were midwives and community healers, and most, if not all, were women. Male medical associations that specifically excluded women convinced male legislatures (where women were neither allowed to hold office nor vote for those in office) to make abortion illegal. Women weren't even consulted.

Of 35 SD State Senators, 32 are male. Of 70 SD State Legislators, 57 are male. 95% and 81%, or 84% of the whole.

Of the 45 known court cases since 1980 where an injunction was sought to prevent a woman from having an abortion, 44 were initiated by men. (One was initiated by the biological father's mother.) In several of the cases, the men who initiated the case, the initiator was not the biological contributor to the embryo in question. (Findlaw.com)

All of the persons who have committed acts of violence against clinic workers or clinics have been male. 87% of the governing Boards of Directors of anti-choice organizations that solicit funding are male. (Annual reports are such fun and useful things.)

According to a Zogby poll from 2004 in the post election season, women's and reproductive rights were the critical factor for women. There's a 22 point gap between women who consider women's and reproductive rights to be the deciding factor in voting for a candidate and men who consider it a deciding factor. (64% of women who vote versus 42% of men who vote). And do recall that there are 8 million more women who vote than men who vote. (Ms. Magazine, quoting.)

Pew Research Center also found that reproductive rights are more important to women than to men. (April, 2004)

Stop drinking the Kool-aid -- it's not women who want abortion illegal because the bodies it affects are our own.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

9. Do you see no difference in your "studies"?

58 and 59% is FAR, FAR and away different from what was said in the OP. That's still millions upon millions of women that are anti-choice.

Ad hominem my ass - you're blind if you think it's only men. Period.

[benevolent dictator]

10. Just because a woman is anti-choice doesn't automatically

mean she's out protesting it. I'm sure there are a good number of anti-choice women, but there's a big difference from saying, "I don't agree with this" and saying, "I don't agree with this, so it should be illegal" and "I don't agree with this, so I'm going to go out and protest and try to make it illegal." Who are the activists against choice? Seems to be mostly men.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

11. Keep trying to justify it.

Go ahead. Keep blaming those evil, hateful men, even though there are millions of men on your side and millions of women fighting against you. Again, if it makes you sleep better at night - go ahead and stay blind and hateful. But it's not going to change the truth.

[benevolent dictator]

12. Have you shown anything

supporting your side?

We aren't saying ALL men hate choice, just that most of the activists against choice are men, not women.

When was the last time you passed a protest that was all or mostly women? I can't even think of a time when I have, except for the random Monday morning protests at the clinic by me - that consist of one 70-year old woman and a stroller propping up fetus pictures. Whenever I see multiple people there, it's always mostly older men.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

13. Are you reading the same OP I am?

You're trying to tell me that over 52 million women are "cowed" into being anti-choice?

And for the record, I live and work in DC. I see ALL the protests. I've seen just as many all woman protests as I have all male ones.

And finally, why would I have to show a side when the numbers you present yourself are either completely made up or they prove my point for me?

[benevolent dictator]

14. I think the OP was pointing out

that many of the women who actively go out and protest abortions are cowed into it. Not that all 52 million anti-choice women are somehow coerced into thinking that way. Like I said, there's a big difference between being anti-choice in words only and actually being an activist about it.

You can't deny that the leadership and funding of these anti-choice organizations is predominantly male. Are we saying all men oppose abortion? No. Are we saying that the movement is controlled by anti-choice men? Yes. You can't counter that.

[EllieGreen]

7. I'm not surprised...

...when I volunteer to work as an escort, 90% of the protesters are men. Last time, the women that were there (4 of them, out of about 40) didn't say a word, just did what they were told. For example, one guy directed his little woman to hand me some literature, I gave it back to her and told her "no thanks." She went back to him, and he started yelling at her because she did not "save" me.

It is truly disgusting some of these so-called Christian men yell at these women: "Whore" and "Baby Murder" are the tame ones.

[Nobody]

15. The ringleader of the antis where I volunteer is a woman

past menopause. SHE can't get pregnant. She is out there screaming at the patients and the volunteers, even those people who are obviously not there to get an abortion. (Try males by themselves looking for the other clinic in the same building. We escort them, too.)

The group that we have to deal with consists of men, post-menopausal women, and ONE woman who MIGHT be young enough to conceive.

As far as I'm concerned, we should redirect all unwanted fetuses and embryos into their uteri.

[mykpart]

16. I don't equate pro-choice with pro-abortion.

Actually, I personally would not want to have an abortion. I think most women would not want to have an abortion. What we want is the option, in case it's needed. Or if we personally are against abortion, we don't want to force our own beliefs on the entire population. So I think a poll of women about whether they believe in abortion could be skewed by the way the question is phrased. I'm pretty sure ALL women would prefer it if abortion was never necessary.