Anti-Abortion Rhetoric and its Ties to TERF Ideology

What is a TERF?

TERF stands for Trans-Exclutionary Radical Feminist. It is an ideology that identifies transwomen as ‘dangerous’ and transmen as ‘confused’ because they do not believe in the validity of trans people. It is also a branch of ‘feminism’ that practices political lesbianism; which is the practice of women exclusively dating women not because they are attracted to them, but as a political statment against the patriarchy and against men. To them, transmen are ‘long lost lesbian sisters’ and transwomen are ‘men in disguise’ with the goal of invading women’s spaces. 

Why is it Harmful?

This ideology is undoubtedly harmful. It declines intersectional feminism; which works to examine womanhood through multiple intersections such as race and class rather than soley focusing on gender analyis. This is because it fails to realize that women are not homogenous and face a variety of struggles, both societal and biological. Trans-womanhood has its own unique struggles, but because TERFs believe women are a monolith, transwomen are denied their womanhood, as are certain nonbinary people and women who do not fit into their definition of women. This is also an ideology that is mainly held by white women (ex: JK Rowling), and its lack of intersectionality makes it hostile and unwelcoming towards women of colour. It hides itself using feminist language such as phrases like “gender critical” or “RadFem” to make it more digestible to the mainstream. Because of the veiled nature of TERF ideology, well-intentioned feminists can be tricked into buying into TERF arguments. Ultimately, it works to limit women’s autonomy through transphobia and homophobia.

I think transwomen, and transpeople in general, show everyone that you can define what it means to be a man or woman on your own terms. A lot of what feminism is about is moving outside of roles and moving outside of expectations of who and what you’re supposed to be to live a more authentic life.

-Laverne Cox

Women’s Rights Are Under Attack

Abortion and women’s autonomy is under attack in North America. In the past few weeks, the US supreme court has voted to overturn Roe v Wade, which protected abortion as a constitutional right. Although the decision is currently a draft and holds the possibility of not becoming a reality, the very idea of this ruling being overturned has the possibility of affecting legislation worldwide, which will lead to a global loss for the fight for women’s rights. With our own government’s ruling stating that certain crimes may be forgiven in an ‘extreme state of intoxication’, including sexual assault, there is a increased risk in Canada for violence against women to occur. Consent is already notoriously difficult to prove in situations where both parties are intoxicated, and the majority of sexual assault cases go unreported. The legal precedent set by these rulings means that women will be more vulnerable legally. Abortion in particular is a direct attack on women’s autonomy and the personhood of an entire gender. To say that a fetus takes priority over a grown women’s freedom to choose is inherently anti-feminist and a misoginistic and colonial idea and affirms the patriarchal idea that women are inferior. It is especially insulting when the insinuation is that women are inferior to an unborn clump-of-cells.

Women’s freedom is the sign of social freedom

-Rosa Luxemburg

Biological Essentialism

Biological essentialism is the idea that biological factors take precedence over cultural ideas of sexuality, gender and race. It is the idea that there are biological limits to the effects of culture and converts all facets of society into a biological mechanism. It is a leading ideology in both TERF and pro-life rhetoric. It is the idea that we are no more than our biological processes. Ie. Women must be pro-life because they would otherwise be denying their biological processes. Trans people are not valid because that would be denying their biology, and that would be immoral. The goal here is to reduce women and trans people to their biological functions, effectively making their personhood worth less than a cis man, who in their ideal are able to explore their identities outside of the constraints of gender. This is dehumanization, something which both TERFs and pro-lifers do exceedingly well. Through this dehumanization, these people can effectively control the bodies and lives of women and trans people. The centre of this argument is control. The left seeks control over themselves and their bodies. Anti-abortionists and TERFs seek to take this control away.

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