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Warning: This blog is mainly about my views on issues relating to liberty, disability rights, women's rights, the non-aggression principle, and the consistent life ethic. This blog also contains artwork, satire, and lists of awesome music and movies. Many of the things I post will be controversial, meaningful, or hilarious. For a more in-depth description, click here.

Friday, September 12, 2014

Why abortion is inconsistent with intersectional feminism

It is extremely common for feminists to be intersectional. Many feminists claim that in order to support women's rights, a person must support the rights of all women, regardless of race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, whether or not they're transgender, or anything else of that nature. I completely agree with that.
I find it hypocritical that so many feminists say they're intersectional, and yet they exclude so many people. Many feminists are pro-choice, which clearly excludes the rights of unborn women. This attitude that some human beings don't deserve rights is the root of racism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, classism, and all other forms of discrimination. I have found all the theories about what makes a person a person to be arbitrary. If these arguments were applied consistently, pro-choice people would deny that newborns and people with disabilities were people.
Although most feminists don't deny the personhood of individuals with disabilities, I've noticed that many "intersectional" feminists seem to overlook disability rights as an important issue. Sometimes feminists say things that could be perceived as ableist. For example, many feminists have made comments along the lines of "women should be complimented for being smart and not for being attractive." While this may seem harmless, it could be easily twisted so it would send the message that intelligence is what defines your worth as a human being. Although intelligence is definitely a positive trait, not all people are intelligent in the traditional way. Some people have disabilities that make learning difficult, and that doesn't make them less important than those who have average or above-average intelligence.
Unfortunately, many people believe that people with disabilities are a burden on society and should be aborted. This means that if a person is consistently pro-choice on abortion, they wouldn't care if someone decided to have an abortion because their unborn child was disabled.
Ironically, many feminists also think sex-linked abortion should be legal. This is obviously inconsistent with feminism because it implies that it's morally acceptable to discriminate against women. It is also important to consider that when there are significantly more men than women in a particular area, human trafficking becomes more prevalent. Increasing abortion access should never be a higher priority than ending violence against women.
Abortion is inconsistent with true intersectional feminism because abortion is closely connected to many forms of discrimination and injustice. For this reason, feminists should be concerned about abortion.

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