by Linda McKenney, Storyteller and Historical Reenactor
Some anti-abortion activists are misrepresenting Susan B. Anthony, one of the early women’s rights leaders. They are claiming that Miss Anthony would support making abortions illegal if she were alive today.
This assertion is purported based on an article written anonymously that appeared in The Revolution, a women’s rights newspaper that Miss Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton published from 1868 to 1870. “A,” the author of the article referred to abortion as “child-murder.”
Because the article was signed “A,” these activists claim it was written by Miss Anthony herself. However, a study of every page of The Revolution reveals many articles signed “S.B.A.,” which would seem to indicate that when Miss Anthony authored an article, she used her own initials.
Additionally, upon scrutiny, one can see that many of the articles signed “A” were on subjects of which Miss Anthony had no expertise. And an article by “A” quarreled with The Revolution‘s position on capital and labor, which lead to a debate in a subsequent issue in which the editors addressed its author as “Mr. A,” which would strongly suggest that it was someone other than Miss Anthony.
While Miss Anthony used the word abortion in one of her speeches, she did not say that she supported making it illegal. She listed seeking an abortion as one of the possible consequences of being the wife of an alcoholic husband, who may impregnate his wife and then leave her with no means to support the child. Miss Anthony mentioned abortion again later in the same speech, this time only in the context of the injustice of laws that intimately affect women but are made and enforced by men.
Anthony’s long career of public speaking provided many occasions for her to speak about abortion, if she’d chosen to do so. The plain fact, however, is that Susan B. Anthony almost never referred to abortion, and when she did, she said nothing to indicate that she wanted it banned by law.