A 2006 article by Allison Stevens for ''
Women's eNews'' said "a scholarly disagreement ...is growing into a heated skirmish over the famous suffragist's position on reproductive rights." Stevens said pro-choice activists were "outraged over what they say is an unproven claim and concerned that their heroine is being appropriated by a community led by the very people Anthony battled during her lifetime:
social conservatives". She concluded, "The bottom line is that we cannot possibly know what Anthony would make of today's debate" over the abortion issue, because "the terms do not translate".
Gloria Feldt, a former head of
Planned Parenthood, said of Anthony that "there's absolutely nothing in anything that she ever said or did that would indicate she was anti-abortion." Law professor Tracy Thomas, writing in the
Seattle University Law Review, said the "strategy of creating a narrative of feminist history against abortion" was developed by Feminists for Life in the early 1990s. Thomas published a lengthy analysis of what she considered to be inaccuracies in that narrative, saying, "... the narrative is simply not true. Sound bites that have been excised from history are taken out of context to convey a meaning not originally intended." In May 2010,
Sarah Palin addressed a meeting of the SBA List, saying Anthony was one of her heroes, and that Palin's own opposition to abortion rights was influenced by her "feminist foremothers". She said "Organizations like the Susan B. Anthony List are returning the woman's movement back to its original roots, back to what it was all about in the beginning. You remind us of the earliest leaders of the woman's rights movement: They were pro-life." She said that in Anthony's day, "abortion wasn't even a hot political issue ...Abortion simply wasn't up for debate at a time when society itself was firmly against the practice." and was pervasive through the 1870s. As a result, he said, "women believed themselves to be carrying inert non-beings prior to quickening", and if a woman missed her
period, an early sign of pregnancy, either she or her doctor could take steps to "restore menstrual flow". Mohr said there was a surge in abortions after 1840 and that a study of abortion in New York City published in 1868 concluded that there was approximately one abortion there for every four live births. Dannenfelser said that while the anti-abortion cause was not "the issue that earned Susan B. Anthony her stripes in American history books, historians would be wrong to conclude that Anthony was agnostic on the issue of abortion". The FFL said that Howe's diary entry for that date indicated that she had argued about infanticide with Stanton, who, according to Howe, "excused infanticide on the grounds that women did not want to bring moral monsters into the world, and said that these acts were regulated by natural law. I differed from her strongly".
The Revolution launched a campaign in Vaughn's defense, which was conducted largely by the
Working Women's Association (WWA), an organization formed in the offices of
The Revolution with Anthony's participation. The
National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House, located in Anthony's former home in
Rochester, New York, expressed concern about the association of Anthony's name with what it considered to be misleading political campaign material produced by the
Susan B. Anthony List. In a press release the museum said, "The List's assertions about Susan B. Anthony's position on abortion are historically inaccurate." Deborah Hughes, president of the museum, said, "People are outraged by their actions, causing harm to Anthony's name and the mission of our Museum."
Quotes Anthony wrote very little about abortion. said, "Susan B. Anthony has become their unwitting antiabortion poster child based largely on an article she did not write ... For the occasional articles Anthony wrote, she signed 'S.B.A.,' just as she signed the postscripts in her vast correspondence. 'Marriage and Maternity' is signed only 'A,' a shorthand Anthony never used." Derr said Anthony was known to sign "S.B.A." and was affectionately referred to as "Miss A." by others. In support of her opinion that Anthony wrote this article, Dannenfelser said, "Anthony published many articles under a simple pseudonym, 'A.'" in
The Revolution. Ward disputed this, saying, "That statement is completely false. There are only eight items in
The Revolution that were signed that way, and none of them can reasonably be attributed to Anthony." Referring to the "Marriage and Maternity" article, which identifies uncaring husbands as the "thrice guilty" party, Schiff says "what is generally not mentioned [by anti-abortion organizations] is that the essay argues against an anti-abortion law; its author did not believe legislation would resolve the issue of unwanted pregnancy." Gordon, referring to the article's many scriptural quotes and appeals to God, says that its style does not fit with Anthony's "known beliefs". and in FFL's own journal in 1998, they were used in 2000 by FFL in a promotional poster, one of eight produced for college campuses, alongside an assertion that Anthony was "another anti-choice fanatic", leading the reader to an abortion-related interpretation of them. She continued with a sentence that mentioned abortion: Later in the speech, Anthony mentioned abortion again: Clark described this speech as one in which Anthony was "more explicit" about abortion. Three days later, Anthony wrote, "Sister Annie better—but looks very slim—she will rue the day she forces nature". According to Gordon, the phrase "tampering with herself" refers to "inducing an abortion". Calling this another instance in which "Dannenfelser has disregarded the facts", Ward responded by saying, "Anthony said nothing of the sort.
Elizabeth Blackwell wrote those words, which appear on page 30 of her memoirs." ==Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum==