{"id":238143,"date":"2020-01-23T17:44:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T23:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=238143"},"modified":"2021-01-15T12:39:41","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T18:39:41","slug":"three-things-pro-life-feminist-womens-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/three-things-pro-life-feminist-womens-march\/","title":{"rendered":"Three things I learned as a pro-life feminist at the Women’s March"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Note: The opinions expressed in this guest submission are solely the opinions of the author and are not necessarily reflective of the views of Live Action or of Live Action News.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m only 19 years old so I\u2019m sometimes still a bit na\u00efve; for example, since I am a\u00a0woman, I thought I would be welcome at the Women\u2019s March in D.C. this past Saturday. I was\u00a0wrong. I am also now less na\u00efve.<\/p>\n

At the Women’s March, surrounded by people chanting \u201cMy Body My Choice,\u201d and \u201cThis is\u00a0Democracy!\u201d a college friend and I stood, holding up our feminist pro-life signs behind the\u00a0opening banner, believing that in our free democracy all women have the choice to come to their\u00a0own conclusions and state their minds freely. I was there in solidarity with the other women,\u00a0while exercising my freedom to state my difference of opinion civilly.<\/p>\n

We marched peacefully with the other women, cheerfully holding our \u201cPro-Woman, Pro-Earth, Pro LGBT Rights, and Pro-Baby (aka Pro-Life)\u201d signs.\u00a0Not ten minutes passed before a coordinator from the Women\u2019s March planted herself in\u00a0my path and grabbed my shoulders, shouting \u201cMove! Move!\u201d I heard\u00a0chanting and drums behind me – a group of indigenous women was moving through the crowd\u00a0to where I stood in the grip of the coordinator. She followed with more shouting in my face,\u00a0\u201cMove! Move! Do you see what you are doing?! Don\u2019t you see what you are doing?! You are\u00a0putting your white body and your sign in front of these indigenous women! Move your white\u00a0body away from these indigenous women!\u201d All the while, she was forcefully pushing me backwards,\u00a0attempting to remove me from the front of the March.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Pro-life ads in Italy anger feminists\u2026 by pointing out how abortion kills females<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I planted my feet, trying to resist her, and\u00a0stated, \u201cYou don\u2019t know who I am or where I come from. Let go of me! I\u2019m not blocking the\u00a0indigenous women, I am marching with them. This March is for all women.\u201d<\/p>\n

I tried to get her to\u00a0take her hands off of me but she wouldn\u2019t, until we were swept away from the front by the wave\u00a0of indigenous women. Once she had succeeded in her aim – to forcibly remove me from the\u00a0March – she let go of me and stormed away.<\/p>\n

As I reflect on my encounter, what stands out to me most is the outrageous irony of the\u00a0Women\u2019s March coordinator\u2019s words and actions, in juxtaposition with the claims and demands\u00a0of the March. I was prepared to encounter verbal pushback about my sign – it happened last year\u00a0and did again this year. But I was not prepared to be \u201cwoman-handled\u201d by someone claiming women have a right to “bodily autonomy.”<\/p>\n

Her\u00a0attitude and actions reveal the hypocrisy of the Women\u2019s March organization and\u00a0the current state of progressive feminism in a few ways.<\/p>\n

1. If you’re pro-life, your ‘bodily autonomy’ isn’t respected.<\/strong><\/p>\n

All around me, marchers\u00a0were screaming, \u201cKeep your hands off my body!\u201d Each of them making it clear that no one can\u00a0tell women what to do with their bodies, even when that means taking the life of another body.\u00a0And yet, here was this progressive feminist March organizer putting her hands on my body and trying to force me,\u00a0against my will, to do what she wanted. Apparently bodily autonomy is only for people who\u00a0share her opinions. My bodily autonomy did not matter.<\/p>\n

2. If you’re pro-life, you don’t get a say… even with a uterus.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Secondly, many marchers toted signs saying, \u201cNo Uterus, No Opinion.\u201d As a biological\u00a0woman with a uterus, following this premise, my opinion should count. Right? Wrong.<\/p>\n

3. If you’re a pro-life woman, standing in solidarity may be difficult.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, I was marching because I sought to stand in solidarity with my fellow women, regardless of their background. The same was not true of the March coordinator who physically\u00a0accosted me. When she screamed at me to move my \u201cwhite body,\u201d assuming incorrectly that I\u00a0was intentionally blocking the indigenous women, she made assumptions about me because of my skin color, and tried – by force – to shut me down.<\/p>\n

I could play the identity card here and I would \u201cwin\u201d against my aggressor, but I refuse to play that game.<\/p>\n

In the end, I am glad for the experience, though at first, I felt angry at the March coordinator and let down by the\u00a0bitter, crass and self-righteous expressions of my fellow feminists. Now I just wonder why my presence triggered her hatred. How many abortions might she have had? What pain and regret might she be\u00a0suppressing? I wish I would have had the presence of mind to ask her.<\/p>\n

Whatever the answer, I know what my plan is. The Women\u2019s March has been dwindling\u00a0since 2017; maybe it has to do with its lack of diversity, equality and inclusivity for all women.\u00a0I have some encouraging news for the coordinators \u2014 next year I will be back, and in numbers — marching for ALL women, those still in the womb.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: The opinions expressed in this guest submission are solely the opinions of the author and are not necessarily reflective of the views of Live Action or of Live Action News. I\u2019m only 19 years old so I\u2019m sometimes still a bit na\u00efve; for example, since I am a\u00a0woman, I thought I would be welcome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":217419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077,3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThree things I learned as a pro-life feminist at the Women's March<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I marched to stand in solidarity with fellow women, regardless of background. 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