A feminist publication launched a new campaign in June, seeking women's positive stories about how "reproductive choices" (including abortion) have helped women 'build their lives' — but it appears to have been far from the "majority" flex the publication was going for.

With under 180 stories contributed thus far, perhaps the low turnout is because this narrative is past its expiration date. 

Key Takeaways:

• Among those who still believe that women require birth control and abortion to live their best lives or live life on their own terms, one difficult theme recurred in response after response to Ms. Magazine's campaign: sex and babies are connected, and the vast majority of abortions come from sex outside marriage.

• Even with the relative fragility of marriage and high rates of divorce, research notes that marriage "is the best protector of human life" in the womb.

• Ms. Magazine’s campaign responses make the case for saying the quiet part out loud: Sex can lead to babies. Sex outside the permanence of marriage precedes the majority of abortions.

The Details:

“What kind of life did access to reproductive choices let you build?” So reads the landing page for feminist publication Ms. Magazine’s ‘The Life I Built’ campaign.

The landing page asserts:

You — or someone you love — has benefited from contraception, sex education, maternal care, assisted reproduction, miscarriage care or abortion. This isn't a privilege we ask permission for. Our lives depend on this right. It's a right millions of us exercise every day — legal or not, restricted or not, named or not. We are the majority. We're going on the record.

But among those who still believe that women require birth control and abortion to live their best lives or live life on their own terms, one difficult theme recurred in response after response: sex and babies are connected, and the vast majority of abortions come from sex outside marriage.

If the pro-life movement truly wants to end abortion, it will have to face this uncomfortable reality head-on. 

What the Responses Tell Us:

Tale as old as time

Many of the responses, to date, come from women in their 60s, 70s and 80s: 

• A 79-year-old Missouri woman who had an abortion in her early 20s after her birth control failed

• An 81-year-old Texas woman who traveled out-of-state with her boyfriend in 1968 for an abortion she insisted she’s never regretted

• A 75-year-old Texas woman who sought to “escape the Kansas farm life my mother led”

• A 67-year-old Canadian woman who was able “[n]ot to be trapped in my small central Canadian town because he was stronger than me in 1977”

• A 64-year-old Texas woman whose birth control failed at age 22, lacking social, family, or financial support, and who “ditched [her] boyfriend” after her abortion

• A 61-year-old New York woman who was “the oldest daughter of a teenage mother," and claimed, "The cycle of unplanned pregnancies trapping women in abusive relationships goes back at least 3 generations.” 

These women were sold a bill of goods: the lie that they could not succeed, whether personally or professionally, without shutting down their natural fertility — and, when that failed, ending the lives of their children in the womb. 

(Some of) today’s women are telling the same story

That lie has persisted among the generations, cited by:

• A 34-year-old New York woman who credits “reproductive choices” for her ability to “leave an abusive partner and decide to create the family I want on my timeline without depending on someone else”

• A 27-year-old Colorado woman; she wrote, “Birth control meant that, when I realized my long-term partnership was no longer working, we could part ways without being tied together for life by a child (the cat was hard enough to sort out).”

• A 20-year-old Kansas woman who credited abortion for her “freedom to continue pursuing a bachelor’s degree and experiencing young adulthood in D.C.” 

The reality that many of these women’s “reproductive choices” led to the deaths of innocent, vulnerable, tiny persons is gut-wrenching. 

Here’s where the pro-life movement is confronted by an uncomfortable truth that resounded through many, many responses to the Ms. Magazine prompt. 

No life is a mistake

First, to be unequivocally clear, the pro-life movement is absolutely right to highlight the good that can come from an unplanned pregnancy, the reality that every life is an exquisite, unrepeatable gift, and the fundamental truth that no child deserves to die because of the circumstances of their conception. 

At the same time, it’s true that having a baby in the context of an abusive relationship, or during college, or in myriad other unstable life circumstances would not be ideal, not without great challenges. 

The main cause of abortion is…

Ethics and Public Policy Center president Ryan T. Anderson noted this starkly in his foreword to Nathanael Blake’s book, “Victims of the Revolution: How Sexual Liberation Hurts Us All.”

He wrote, "Nonmarital sex is the main cause of abortion” (xiii). The statistics are crystal clear, he observed, writing that “4 percent of babies conceived in marriage will be aborted, compared to 40 percent of children conceived outside marriage; and 13 percent of women who have abortions are married, while 87 percent are unmarried.” 

In no uncertain terms, he asserted that, even with the relative fragility of marriage and high rates of divorce: “Marriage is the best protector of unborn human life. As long as nonmarital sex is expected, large numbers of Americans will view abortion as necessary when contraception fails.” 

The truth no one wants to hear

He concluded that “Our primary task is not to persuade people of the humanity of the unborn–anyone who has ever seen an ultrasound knows all about that–but to change how people conduct their sexual lives” (xiii). 

The Bottom Line:

Is the pro-life movement prepared to “preach” the vital importance of keeping sex within the bonds of marriage? Is the movement prepared to withstand name-calling and insults hurled by those who feel judged, or fracturing within the movement by those who oppose the violence of abortion but resist advocacy of historically Judeo-Christian values? 

Ms. Magazine’s ‘Life I Built’ responses make an unwitting but strong case for saying the quiet part out loud: Sex can lead to babies. Sex outside the permanence of marriage precedes the majority of abortions. If we understand that abortion is the intentional killing of a preborn human, our blasé cultural acceptance of nonmarital sex has to change.