susan b anthony abortion

In Susan B Anthony’s famous speech "Social Purity," delivered on March 14, 1875, abortion is listed with infanticide and other murders among the negative consequences of the "evils" perpetrated by men: "The prosecutions on our courts for breach of promise, divorce, adultery, bigamy, seduction, rape; the newspaper reports every day of every year of scandals and outrages, of wife murders and paramour shooting, of abortions and infanticides, are perpetual reminders of men’s incapacity to cope successfully with this monster evil of society." "This speech," Clark says, "clearly presents abortion as a symptom of the problems faced by women, especially when subjected ‘to the tyranny of men’s appetites and passions.’" Another quote attributed to Anthony was recorded by fellow suffragist Frances Willard. After Anthony was complimented by a man who said: "you, of all women I have met, ought to have been a wife and mother," Anthony replied: "I thank you, sir…but sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so that their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them." A final quote that has been attributed, arguably, to Anthony appeared in her newspaper The Revolution in an article entitled "Marriage and Maternity". "Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime!"