Abortion Ensures Equality for Woman?

I just perused a document (posted on President-Elect Obama’s website) that was submitted to the Obama/Biden Transition Project by a variety of pro-abortion groups urging our next president to make serious reproductive health reforms. Improved access to abortion care was among these hoped-for reforms. Nothing in the document was terribly unexpected (knowing it came from abortion supporters), but what did catch my eye was the last sentence of the opening paragraph: “[E]nsuring access to reproductive health services is essential to a woman’s full and equal participation in society.”

Perhaps I misunderstand the statement, but it seems to suggest that woman cannot achieve societal equality without access to reproductive services like abortion. That is, unless there is unrestricted access to a certain medical procedure that terminates pregnancies woman will not be able to participate in society the way that men do. I personally am in favor of gender equality in society, but if it is true that woman need access to abortion to ensure that equality, doesn’t this suggest that they are naturally inferior? If woman need to terminate the natural biological process in their wombs to be on par with man, then it can only mean, it seems to me, they are not equal by nature. I find it strange that feminist groups (like NOW) who fight for woman’s equality rely on arguments that assume inequality.

It is one thing to say that “society” has made it difficult for woman to maintain jobs and continue education when pregnancies arise, but it is quite another to say that woman’s equality depends upon the freedom to terminate those pregnancies. Could there be a better way? Is there a way to celebrate the equality of men and woman while also celebrating the capacity of woman to become pregnant and bear children? I do not see how we can celebrate woman while at the same time reproaching their biological capacity for motherhood through abortion.