What women want Finding someone to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

Aug 11, 2005

With the recent departure of Sandra Day O’Connor from the United States Supreme Court, women and men are up in arms debating, analyzing, and even predicting the future of women’s rights in America.  Many now fear that a woman’s right to abortion is in jeopardy because of the high court vacancy.  Senator Barbara Boxer has even pointed her finger at Pro-Life nominees stating that thousands of “women will die” if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

In today’s “choice-saturated” world, this election isn’t just significant: it’s monumental.

Pro-Abortion supporters know that any Justice aspiring toward a “culture of life” could feasibly turn the tide in America regarding life issues.  What they don’t know is that by turning the tide, women’s rights will still be protected…and not in the name of “choice,” but in the name of authentic, life-giving freedom. 

So, how should we define women’s rights?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a right is “something that one may properly claim as due.”  Rights inform all individuals of their dignity and assure people that their basic needs will be protected.  As such, rights would include equal access to basic necessities like food, water, and shelter.  Pope John Paul II, in his Letter to Women, also identified “equal pay for equal work, protection for working mothers, [and] fairness in career advancements” as personal rights owed to women. 

Unfortunately, in our modern society, we have reduced “rights” to mean “right to do whatever we want,” even if it comes at another’s expense.   This shift is most noticeable in the pro-abortion lobby.  Women cry out for protection of their “reproductive rights,” but in doing so, disregard the fundamental human “right” to life.  In actuality, we can see that their demands are self-seeking and not “rights” at all.

The Magisterium has stated that when “rights” are reduced to “self-centered demands,” the consequences are inevitably the objectification of persons in the name of freedom.  Just look for a moment at the entire “choice” platform.  The acceptance of abortion and contraception has objectified women, the unborn, families, spouses…all in the name of freedom. 

In 1 Peter 2:16, we are told to “be free, but without using freedom as a pretext for evil.”  This verse reminds us that freedom can be easily manipulated and misguided.  It calls us to recognize that the world’s promotion of freedom contrasts the freedom found in the gospel. 

Paul says in Galatians 5, “for freedom, Christ set us free…to serve one another through love.”  If we apply this sense of authentic freedom to women’s rights, we see that fulfillment doesn’t rest in self-centered demands or at the expense of another.  Rather, the rights of women are protected and promoted when we go out of our way to service one another in charity.  

This biblical charge parallels the vision of early American feminists like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Mary Wollstonecraft.  They promoted the authentic rights of women and recognized “that feminism has never been about destroying the fabric of human relationships.  It was and is about empowering women and men- whatever their marital or parental status- to give life to one another and to children, including the unborn.” 

Their motivation to secure rights for women witnessed the theology of the Catholic Church.  I hope more American women return to their roots, respect the dignity and rights of each human being, and commit their lives to building up a civilization of life-giving love.