Framing pro-life advocacy as “oppressive to women” assumes that women who oppose abortion cannot be acting from serious moral reasoning, effectively denying their agency as independent thinkers. Supporting women’s equality does not require accepting the deliberate killing of other humans, because equality is not achieved by resolving hardship through violence against a more vulnerable group. If the unborn are biologically human like everyone else, then they are capable of being treated unjustly even if they lack awareness of that injustice. History shows that harm and oppression do not cease to be real simply because victims are unaware of what is happening to them or have been conditioned to accept abuse as normal. In that light, restricting abortion is not best understood as oppressing women, since it is not considered oppression to prohibit one human being from killing another.
Key Takeaways
Labeling women “oppressive” for opposing abortion dismisses their moral agency and treats their views as illegitimate by default.
Women’s equality does not require endorsing the killing of other humans; equality cannot be achieved by shifting harm onto a weaker group.
Lack of awareness does not negate injustice, and unborn humans can be treated unjustly even if they do not recognize the harm.
Prohibiting abortion is consistent with the general principle that no one has the right to kill another human being, which is not considered oppression in any other context.