Oo, Feminists for Life! There's a group that sounds interesting! This particular post was sparked by Twisty Faster and a Katha Pollitt column called Feminists for (Fetal) Life. Ms. Pollitt interviewed the president of FFL, Serrin Foster but seemed to have a hard time actually getting concrete answers to some of her questions.

The problem is that FFL doesn't just oppose abortion. FFL wants abortion to be illegal. All abortions, period, including those for rape, incest, health, major fetal defects and, although Foster resisted admitting this, even some abortions most doctors would say were necessary to save the woman's life. [...]

I got similarly evasive answers when I asked why FFL didn't promote birth control, and when I asked if FFL considered the pill an "abortifacient." She did tell me that "birth control doesn't work" for swing-shift nurses because they lose track of their body clock--interesting, if true--or for teenagers, which I know to be false. [...]

In the FFL view, women have abortions because they are victims--of shamed parents, abusive boyfriends, prochoice propaganda and a society hostile to motherhood. Only a "few percent" of women who have abortions have what they need to choose childbirth instead--the rest are like prostitutes, Foster told me, coerced women falsely said to be making a free choice.

I tried to analyze the FFL website but found it rather overwhelming. Not because of its complexity but because I found it remarkably uninformative. However I find it quite revealing that FFL doesn't promote birth control. This leads me to the conclude that they are anti-sex rather than just anti-abortion. Pollitt notes "Although FFL is not a Catholic organization, its rejection of therapeutic abortion follows Catholic doctrine."

Despite the fact that many of the early Feminist leaders were anti-abortion, I can't help feeling the phrase "Feminists for Life" is some sort of cruel oxymoron. Not that feminists wouldn't be in favor of life but that these particular "feminists" would be so intent on imposing their view on other women. There's a difference between valuing life and creating a fanatical fetish for fetuses.