pro life sexism

Last updated 3/5/2025

Note that because much of Christian theology is deeply cissexist, womanhood is often equated with body parts. Transgender men and some nonbinary people are also negatively affected (and typically misgendered) by “pro-life” activism that values stopping abortion above all else.

1. Pregnant people who want abortions are often portrayed as wanting to have sex (presumed to be extra-marital) without consequences, or as needing to be reminded that fetuses are human. Any other reasons someone might get an abortion (poverty, conceiving due to rape, threats from an abuser, having a disability that would make pregnancy and/or childbirth unsafe, etc.) are often brushed off.

Uncritical examples

None yet

Commentary

God Help My Friendship With White Evangelicals After Dobbs by Brittney Cooper | The Cut (June 2022)

How I Lost Faith in the “Pro-Life” Movement | Love, Joy, Feminism (October 2012)

I'm concerned that there's still an argument to be made for “pro-life” policies where women die | Tell me why The world is weird (January 2024)

And You Wonder Why I See the Right as Anti-Woman . . . | Love, Joy, Feminism (August 2013)

2. Many pro-life groups run things called crisis pregnancy centers. These will often delibrately imitate abortion clinics but refuse to disclose that they don't perform abortions and will spread misinformation about abortion and birth control.

Uncritical examples

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Commentary

What I Learned Undercover at a Crisis Pregnancy Center by Caitlin Bancroft | Huff Post (August 2013)

[video] Crisis Pregnancy Centers | Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (April 2018, includes a brief description of sexual abuse/assault committed by an anti-abortion priest)

3. Some anti-abortion Christians will go so far as to not allow abortions in cases where the fetus is not viable or in other cases where the pregnancy is life-threatening.

Continuing a pregnancy after fetal death can lead to sepsis, an often life-threatening infection.

Uncritical examples

None yet

Commentary

Nun Excommunicated For Allowing Abortion by Barbara Bradley Hagerty | NPR (May 2010)

Pence would ban abortions when pregnancies aren't viable. His GOP rivals won't say if they agree by Jill Colven | AP News (July 2023)

Michigan pharmacist refuses medicine to woman having miscarriage by Kristen Jordan Shamus | Detroit Free Press (October 2018, the pharmacist in question refused to believe the woman when she told him the fetus was not viable)

ACLU Sues, Claiming Catholic Hospitals Put Women At Risk by Julie Rovner | NPR (December 2013)

Idaho Argues Pregnant Women Facing Amputations from Septic Shock Can't Get Emergency Abortions By Susan Rinkunas | Jezebel (December 2024)

More about “pro-life” sexism

Evangelicals are one step closer to the ultimate prize: ending abortion in America by Matthew Avery Sutton | The Guardian (September 2021)

What Pregnancy Taught Me About Being Pro-Choice | Tell me why the world is weird (September 2020)

Leopards, faces, etc. | slacktivist (December 2022)

Analysis: What I unlearned about Roe v. Wade by Matt DeRienzo | Center For Public Integrity (May 2022)

What if pro-lifers already are consistently “pro-life”? by Adam Kotsko | An und für sich (December 2023)

“The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion”

When the Anti-Choice Choose by Joyce Arthur (2000)

Further information

Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives by Lawrence B. Finer, Lori F. Frohwirth, Lindsay A. Dauphinee, Susheela Singh, and Ann M. Moore | Guttmacher Institute (2005)

how anti-abortion laws endanger people (this is another link spam I did about preventable deaths and other medical emergencies tied to anti-abortion laws)

Forced Birth is Torture. by Bess Kalb | Substack

Of Course They Want Us Dead by Jessica Valenti | Substack (January 2024)

When does life begin? There's more than one religious view by Rachel Mikva | Religion News Network (September 2021)

CEO of Crisis Pregnancy Center Urges Trump Admin to Ban Abortion Pills Over 'Baby Shortage' by Susan Rinkunas | Jezebel (March 2025)

Tennessee Bill Would Imprison People for 3 Years If They 'Lie' About Rape to Get an Abortion By Kylie Cheung | Jezebel (February 2023)

Christian misogyny and sexism documents

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