——interviewed by Mamata Pokharel
On Wednesday night, Mary Meehan, sponsored by the Grinnell Pro-Life Group, spoke on “Why Liberals Should Defend the Unborn.” She gave some history and information about groups that defend pro-life stance on abortion but also liberal issues, such as Feminists for Life and Democrats for Life. A self-described “pro-life feminist,” and freelance reporter, Meehan advocates actively against abortion, euthanasia, eugenics and war. She believes that the pro-life movement should be more diverse and include more liberals.
Over 80 people attended the talk in Haris Concert Hall, which began at 7 p.m. Questioning continued until 10 p.m. Before her talk, the S&B asked her a few questions.
Q: What made you want to be an active voice for this issue?
A: I was very active in the anti-war movement in the 1960s and 70s. ... I was puzzled when so many people who were in the anti-war movement, including people who I knew and respected, moved without much question to the abortion choice side. It seemed to me that there was a conflict there because I thought we were against the war in large part because of the terrible violence and the taking of human life involved. I thought “Wait a minute! People should look at this more closely.” So, I looked and listened and read a fair amount and when I was ready to write, I did some research including looking at embryology books and it seems to me that the scientific evidence that life begins at conception is just overwhelming. I think they make a very strong pro-life case based on human rights and that is what I started to do.
Q: What do you think is the biggest issue in the abortion debate?
A: Human rights, because those rights are indivisible. If the rights in any human beings are threatened, in a sense everyone else’s rights are threatened. The unborn are the most defenseless form of life, if anything we should defend them more. I think that all life and death issues are very important and I’m an advocate of a consistent life ethic which consistently opposes the violence and the taking of human life across the world. So I am against war, the death penalty, euthanasia as well as abortion.
Q: If abortion is a human rights issue, would you say that opposition to it is not or should not be influenced by religion?
A: I think the big presence of the Right has turned it in many people’s eyes into a religious issue. And, if we look at most of the great social change movements in our history, most of them have been led by religious people. Although in most cases you could make a strong case on human rights grounds, religious people tended to be in the leadership positions. That was true for the anti-slavery movement, where the Quakers were involved or the struggle against segregation in the south, which was squarely rooted in the black churches. I think when looking at the pro-life movement, people should keep in mind that religious leadership is not unusual in social change. At least in this country, that is the usual situation.
Q: Why do you think many people who feel strongly about other human rights issues do not feel the same way about this one? Why do you think many people do not instinctively feel that abortion is homicide, the way pro-life people do?
A: I think there has been a studied effort on the part of many of the supporters of abortion to use language to evade the reality of what happens and that has been successful to a large degree. ... Abortion is often referred to as “termination”, the unborn are referred to as “products of conception.” There has been a conscious effort not to use “unborn child,” which is an old and respectable way to call the unborn. Instead, “fetus” is the word used, which de-humanizes it. ... I think population control was the major moving force for the legalization of abortion in this country. There was a good deal of money and power behind it in the 1970s for reasons of population control and it is still true today. If you look at the big foundations that are funding major groups supporting abortion, most of these foundations are heavily influenced by population control. Of course, they don’t put it front and center, they talk about women’s rights and choice instead. There is still a major eugenics influence too, if you look at major population control groups like Planned Parenthood or the Population Council, most of them have been started by eugenicists, back in the 20s, 30s, 40s. ... The eugenicists tended to have racial bias, class bias, bias against people with disabilities and held a terribly paternalistic view. It is a terrible attitude.
Q: So, you think the abortion debate is more a manifestation of institutional interests than it is a clashing of varied personal beliefs?
A: I don’t want to sound too cynical but I don’t think the folks at population control really care about individual women. I think they tend to manipulate people. And sure there are many personal beliefs but I plead with people to take a look at the scientific facts here about embryonic and fetal development and to realize that we all ourselves went through that stage. We all started as a period at the end of a sentence, which is phenomenal.
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