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I believe in the basic equality of all humans. (I should mention that I suspect that is a rather common belief, at least superficially.) For this simple reason, I am pro-life. By the same token, I am a feminist. But many people, in advocating the pro-choice ideology alongside feminism, help to create an unnatural conflict between pro-lifeness and feminism.
Feminism, as Susan B. Anthony and many other early American feminists recognized, is an attempt to gain social, political, economic, and cultural equality for women. In this struggle, however, women should not be required to deny themselves of anything, especially not their childbearing rights and capabilities. In modern feminism, this idea is misinterpreted as something in support of what we now call "reproductive rights," or more specifically, the right to have an abortion. However, supporters of these reproductive rights accomplish exactly the opposite of what is intended: they set up the non-pregnant, sex-with-no-consequences male state as the ideal, and they do this while shrugging off the very real dangers of abortion surgery.
Women do not need abortions, we need pregnancy to be accepted. We need men to take responsibility along with their pregnant girlfriends, wives, or even short lived flings. We need the stigma attached to young pregnant women to be erased, and we need pregnancy in the workplace to be accommadated. We also need politicians to counteract abortion in indirect ways, such as giving support to programs that help young pregnant women go to term, rather than encouraging more abortions by making pregnancy more difficult.
I am pro-life because I know that human life is precious, and I cannot ever believe that little babies in the womb, no matter how young, are not human. I am also pro-life because I know that women are only harmed by abortion. For these reasons, I feel compelled to activism, as I have been since I was in grammar school. Groups like the Dartmouth Coalition for Life help both women and children in their struggles for equality. The DCFL organizes panels and discussions, plans speeches, coordinates volunteer activities, and generally attempts to educate the Dartmouth community about abortion. I joined because this is a worthwhile cause for everyone, perhaps the most worthwhile cause there is.