March 8, 2025

International Women’s Day

Because of the work of Feminists for Life historians, you know that the first wave women’s movement was pro-life. But fewer know that our movement has become more diverse and international. Here are some of my favorite women that I highlight in my speech, “The Feminist Case Against Abortion”:

In 1954 Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning author Pearl Buck, who may be most famous for “The Good Earth,” also wrote an essay about her daughter, who had a severe developmental disability. She titled it, “Every Life is a Gift.”

Buck asked herself if she’d rather her daughter had never been born – if only she had known before her birth:

“Would I have wanted an abortion? Now with full knowledge of anguish and despair, the answer is No, I would not. Even in full knowledge I would have chosen life, and for two reasons:

“First, I fear the power of choice over life and death at human hands, I see no human being – whom I could ever trust with such power – not myself, not any other.

“…I go to the second reason for rejection of abortion, in my own case. My child’s life has not been meaningless. …a handicapped person, brings its own gift to life… That gift is comprehended in the lessons of patience, understanding, and mercy, lessons which we all need to receive – and practice with one another, whatever we are.”

Graciela Olivarez, the first woman and Latina to graduate from Notre Dame Law School went on to become the highest ranking woman in President Jimmy Carter’s administration.

And when she was appointed to serve as Vice President of the U.S. Commission on Population Growth, she was one of two – out of 24 – to oppose the 1972 report expanding access and funding to abortion, declaring:

“In this affluent country of ours, pregnant cattle and horses and cattle receive better care than pregnant poor women. The poor cry out for justice and equality, and we respond with legalized abortion.”

In 2004, Kenyan environmental and political activist and pro-life feminist Wangari Maathai was the first woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy, and peace. She said:

“There is no reason why anybody who has been conceived, shouldn’t be given the opportunity to be born – and to live a happy life.”

One of the most inspiring pro-life feminists on the world stage was assassinated in 2009. For years, Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto would speak for women and their baby girls at the United Nations and other venues around the globe:

“Too often, when a woman expects a girl, she abets her husband in abandoning or aborting that innocent, perfectly formed child. As we gather here today, the cries of the girl child reach out to us.”

More than 15 years later, they are still crying out to us for help. And that is why our work based on the enduring principles of nonviolence, nondiscrimination, and justice for all must continue.

This International Women’s Day, let us celebrate our pro-woman, pro-life history by sharing this knowledge, welcoming a new generation to our movement, and by supporting our work for resources and support for the most vulnerable women and children. They all deserve better. Far better.

Because women deserve better,

Serrin M. Foster
President