What Are Pro-Life Feminists Doing on Campus?

This article analyzes pro-life feminist claims with particular attention to how the pro-life feminist movement attempts to shape college students’ attitudes about abortion and understandings of feminism. I explore the messages within pro-life feminist literature and Feminists for Life of America’s (FFL) College Outreach Program activist strategies since the mid-1990s, focusing on its campus visits and “Question Abortion” poster campaign launched in 2000–01. Pro-life feminism represents a small social movement, yet offers a focus for critical analysis of how pro-life feminists seek to frame abortion politics and contest the scope of feminism as it influences younger women. FFL’s campaign defines their anti-abortion ideology as the truly woman-centered, historically feminist position. Pro-life feminists claim to represent best the interests of younger women and feminism, and demonstrate an anti-abortion strategy framed both as a challenge to and an embracing of the contested field of feminism