In the ongoing heated debate over what is essentially a medical procedure, the anti-abortion forces, dominated by patriarchal-type males, have succeeded in focusing concern solely on the fetus as though it develops in a plastic bag hidden away in some dark closet. They seem not to notice, or perhaps prefer to ignore, that it is actually in a protective sac in a woman’s body where her nutrients nourish it.

Forced childbearing is the correct term for the “pro-life” objective of stripping women of their choice to have this medical procedure. Unfortunately, pro-choice proponents have failed to call them out on this mischaracterization of what they stand for.

If “pro-life” organizations had any regard for women (and, by extension, for children) they would support sex education in the schools rather than imposing “abstinence only” programs; they would demand that contraceptives be widely available rather than seeking to make them more difficult to obtain; and they would advocate for universal and accessible quality health care.

They profess instead to having a higher moral purpose — saving innocent lives — by trying to ban abortions when their hidden agenda is re-establishing our male-dominated society’s power to control women. If women have no control over the issues surrounding their capacity to bring new life into this world, they will have little control over other aspects of their lives.

“Pro-lifers” equate abortions with murder. They purposely avoid addressing the reality that a pregnancy can cost a woman her life. If a woman should die because she could not end a pregnancy under the laws that “pro-lifers” wish to enact, shouldn’t responsibility for her death fall on their shoulders?

Just as we have established that sexual intercourse must be consensual — not coerced in any way — so must we understand that women must be able to enter into the process of creating new life in a free and wholehearted way.

Forcing a woman to have sexual intercourse is by law a criminal assault. Like rape, forced childbearing would be another form of violence toward women.