Gloria Steinem Quotes
Students ask me why the same people oppose lesbians and birth control.
Gloria Steinem, Editor & Feminism, Speech, National Press Club, November 18, 2013
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Note, that like other feminist leaders of the time, she viewed the fetus as a person. However, between the economic pressures and the illegality of birth control devices and information provision, abortion was a critical decision that had to be faced by many women. Later, feminist leadership had to come to grips with the issue of who makes the decision in these areas, and placed the right of the woman to make these decisions, as opposed to husbands, fathers and government, as the highest priority. Then, when the drivers for abortion could not be eliminated, it was women who were criminalized. Feminists then fought for the right of abortion and the right of the woman to make decisions, but feminine leadership has never—in America—been advocates of abortion as opposed to the right of abortion, a subtlety that often is lost.
Sanger faced charges of obscenity for explaining birth control in a magazine she founded called the Woman Rebel. She got no political support from Wilson or the Democrats. The few politicians who did support her were Republican progressives and reformers.
Gloria Marie Steinem is an American feminist journalist and social political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the American feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
