Huffington Post's Laura Bassett Doesn't Get It: Being Pro-Life Is Pro-Woman

Women oppose abortion.

Pro-abortion forces in the Democratic party, unable to face the facts, have instead engaged in a head-spinning, mind-numbing campaign to portray political victories for abortion as motivated by anti-woman animus.

The latest example? Check out the nasty little piece of anti-Catholic baiting by Laura Bassett in the Huffington Post, “The Men Behind the War on Women."

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opposed ObamaCare because it would fund abortion. Catholic bishops are men. Ergo, the intense political uproar generated against ObamaCare, because it would provide a backdoor way to override the Hyde Amendment’s long-standing prohibition on taxpayer financing of abortion, represents “a group of men that has historically denied women the opportunity to participate in leadership positions… exercising so much power over such a broad range of women's reproductive health legislation.”

"Clearly there's a problem when men take such an interest in the sexual function of women," Bassett wrote. "There's something deeply off about it."

As a woman who heads one of the largest pro-life organizations in America, I’m personally offended by this kind of sexist nonsense.

I’m not the only one. Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America, Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life, Susan Wills of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Prolife Secretariat, major political figures including Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), and Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.), are all strong women standing up for the human rights of unborn babies—and it scares the heck out of the pro-abortion left.

The slanderous “war on women” meme is being used precisely because we are successfully breaking through their old propaganda monopoly that maintained, somehow, abortion is an advancement of women’s rights.

Polls don't always break down answers to abortions question by gender. But, in April of 2010, Gallup provided a fascinating look at trends in attitudes towards abortion broken down by both gender and education.

Generally speaking, there is no gender divide on abortion."Over the past three decades, men and women have consistently held similar views about the extent to which abortion should be legal," Lydia Saad noted in an April 28, 2010 article at Gallup.com.

Support for abortion on demand "under any circumstances" has collapsed since its peak around 1990.

But, in the current surge in pro-life sentiment, women are leading the way, compared to men.

Seventy-three percent of American women disagree with Roe v. Wade’s vision of abortion on demand. Instead, they believe abortion should be illegal in some or all circumstances.

Overall, the proportion of women who adopt a strong, so-called, “pro-choice” position – who say abortion should be legal in all circumstances – dropped from 34 percent in 1990 to 26 percent today, while men with similar views dropped more modestly from 29 percent to 23 percent.

Interestingly, an even greater collapse in support for the pro-choice position is seen among the most educated women—college graduates. In the early 1990s, 50 percent of college-educated women favored legal abortion under all circumstances, while in the latest polls just 35 percent do.

Clearly, the public visibility of strong women who oppose abortion on demand is causing a big change.

Protecting our unborn children from abortion is not an attack on women. Women know this because women are the ones who understand what it is to nurture, shelter and grow an infant in our own bodies.

Even the Huffington Post “war on women” story had to admit “the 39 pro-life Democrats in the House couldn't politically afford to oppose the bishops.”

Why? Because voters in these swing districts are pro-life, and particularly disapprove of the idea that their tax dollars will go to fund abortions.

No amount of fancy rhetorical footwork will hide the truth: The ranks of pro-life voters are growing in size, number and influence—and it’s women who are leading this charge.