In the News
Feminist group takes pro-life stance
By ARAMIS M. GRANT
Legislative Gazette Staff Writer
Mon, Apr 28, 2008
A feminist group that might be considered atypical in its view on abortion rights is making its presence known in the state Capitol.
“We are a pro-life, pro-women organization, and our goal is to educate and advocate for the philosophy of pro-life feminism,” said Meg Smerbeck, board secretary for the state chapter of Feminists Choosing Life of New York.
The organization is opposed to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s proposed Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act, legislation that is aimed at preserving the legal status of abortion in New York should the U.S. Supreme Court reverse itself and give back to states the ability to decide whether the procedure should be allowed. The legislation (S.5829) was introduced in the Senate on Jan. 8 and has no same-as bill in the Assembly.
Feminists Choosing Life says the proposal is an “unnecessary and radical anti-women and pro-abortion bill.”
The legislation strongly supported by Feminists Choosing Life is the proposed Unborn Victims of Violence Act. The bill (A.5777/S.3117) is sponsored by Assemblyman Michael Benjamin, D-Bronx, and Sen. Serphin Maltese, R,C-Middle Village, is aimed at holding assailants accountable for the harm they cause to not only pregnant women, but to the unborn child as well.
“We would like to see this passed,” Smerbeck said, “We think it is necessary to the justice and dignity of women.”
The bill has been referred to the codes committees in both houses of the Legislature.
The legislation seeks to hold people criminally responsible if they assault or murder a pregnant woman, and their actions result in the injury or death of an unborn child in any stage of gestation. Under existing law, a person cannot be criminally prosecuted for harm caused to children unless they are born alive.
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act does not seek to curtail a woman’s right to an abortion.
Smerbeck said the organization’s mission is grounded in the roots of feminism action led by civil rights leader Susan B. Anthony and social activist Elizabeth Stanton who she argues did not seek abortion rights.
“They wanted the rights of women restored,” Smerbeck said. “Abortion rights are not what they sought after. They sought after property rights, giving women a voice … There is no record of them seeking abortion rights,” she said.
“We operate under the original feminist principles,” said Smerbeck, “… rights to live without violence from the point of conception to death.” Smerbeck said the organization is “absolutely opposed to both the death penalty and abortion.”
Benjamin, who has worked directly with the group’s vice president, Wendy McVeigh, in an attempt to gain public support for his bill, said, “I found that they are very professional and sincere. They are very much committed to the issue …”
Feminists Choosing Life of New York describes itself as a nonpartisan, pro-life, pro-woman organization, representing about 700 to 800 constituents throughout the state.
Smerbeck said the group is active in educating pregnant women about their options. She said the group has visited colleges and organized outreach programs to provide “real choices” for pregnant students.
“We help them become educated on what the proper choices are,” said Smerbeck, who said the group talks to pregnant women about adoption, parenting and extending college loans for those who will need financial assistance so they can afford both a newborn and their education. “You really feel like you have a choice instead of quitting college,” she said.
Overall, Smerbeck said the members of the group, when making decisions about the issues they plan to deal with, “try to be very progressive and respectful. We look for common ground regarding issues.” Smerbeck said the group’s discussions center around “making life better for woman.”
“We are a very active, busy group. We are large and strong and happy,” she said.
A different perspective
Historian reveals the other side of Susan B. Anthony
By Ryan Hutton, North Adams Transcript
February 2, 2007
ADAMS — Many people may think they know Susan B. Anthony, the town's most famous daughter. Champion of women's rights. Suffragist. Lecturer. But a fashion icon? Paparazzi target? Victim of stage fright?
Suzanne Schnittman said Anthony was all that and more.
Mixing humorous stories and trivia with Anthony's own writings, Schnittman painted a very different picture Sunday at the Adams Free Library of the woman who always looks so severe in her pictures. Her lecture, "What you may not know about Adam's most distinguished ancestor," was hosted by the Adams Historical Society in the library's Memorial Hall. A second talk about Anthony and equality is scheduled Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Griffin Hall at Williams College in Williamstown.
"The more you can make someone a person, the easier she is to understand and the more lovable she becomes," said Schnittman, a former American history professor at State University of New York. "If she's Adams' most famous daughter, you want her to be the favorite daughter, too."
Schnittman said one of the overlooked "fun facts" about Anthony was her fashion prowess. Anthony always made sure she was properly dressed and never ventured out in casual wear.
Schnittman said although she was a staunch feminist, Anthony was very much in favor of preserving the femininity of women, going so far as resisting the popularity of "bloomers." One of Anthony's trademarks was a finely woven red shawl she always wore while lecturing. That way, the public and the press had something with which to associate her, Schnittman said.
"Once when she was in New York to speak, she had a white shawl on instead of her red one," she said. "She was asked to go get the red one so she would look more like herself for the crowd."
Schnittman said the attention Anthony got from the public and the press was not always welcome. Anthony had reporters following her everywhere she went who often heaped criticism on her for speaking about children and marriage when she was childless and single. She said Anthony's reputation for disliking children was unfair and unfounded because she once wrote that having a child was the most important thing one can do.
"Susan gets a lot of bad press for being anti-child and anti-pregnant women,"
Schnittman said. "But she once wrote 'to be a mother or a father is the highest wish of any human being.' "
She said part of the reason so much attention was paid to Anthony was because she was a curiosity, a woman speaking out on an incendiary issue.
"Most people in our day go to a movie or a hockey game for enjoyment. But back then people went to lectures," Schnittman said. "Half of the people went out of curiosity because back then, seeing a woman lecture was like us going to see a 5-year-old lecture."
Schnittman also said that although Anthony was a strong, stubborn, outspoken woman who had lectured hundreds of times all over the country, she always suffered from a bad case of stage fright. She said Anthony sometimes had to grip the podium hard to restrain herself from getting too nervous. Schnittman read a passage Anthony wrote in 1878: "It always requires a painful effort to face an audience. I have never felt at perfect ease on a platform."
After her lecture, Schnittman fielded a handful of questions from the audience. They ranged from Anthony's political and religious affiliations to her handling of insults and heckling to what she would be like in today's political arena. She said she hoped that people took away from the lecture a new view on Anthony that was bigger than her participation in women's suffrage.
"Susan B. Anthony defended women and their children at every stage of life and for every struggle that they might encounter," she said. "Her focus was the vote, but her passion was women's lives."
Anthony was born in Adams in 1820 and her family's home still stands on East Road. The home was purchased at auction last August by Carol Crossed, a member of the board of directors for Feminist For Life (FFL) of New York, which will run the home. Schnittman is a former president of FFL and her son is married to Crossed's daughter. Crossed was in attendance at Sunday's lecture and said Schnittman was the perfect person to speak on Anthony.
"Suzanne is the most like Susan B. Anthony of anyone I know," she said. "She's driven, she's committed to women's issues so I feel like its a real treat for Adams to have her speak."
Both women have high hopes for Anthony's birthplace. Some of the ideas FFL is kicking around include a museum, a women's retreat and a home for pregnant students. Schnittman said she wishes the town and the organization luck in picking a use for the house that Anthony would have believed in.
"A house is more than just boards and brick," she said. "A house can breathe the beliefs of a person who called it home."
Group mulling appropriate use for Anthony birthplace
By Ryan Hutton, North Adams Transcript
January 15, 2007
The Susan B. Anthony House in Adams is going on the auction block.
ADAMS — The new owner of the historic Susan B. Anthony birthplace has big plans in mind for the 189-year-old home.
"We have a number of feasibility studies we are currently involved in to determine the future use of the house," said owner Carol Crossed.
The former owners of the house, James and Linda McConchie, had hoped to turn the building into a museum dedicated to the women's rights activist when they bought the property in 1998 but failed to secure funding for the project.
Crossed bought the property at auction on Aug. 5 last year. She is a member of the board of directors for the New York chapter of Feminists For Life (FFL). According to its Web site, Feminists For Life is a pro-life, pro-woman, nonsectarian organization dedicated to finding solutions to the challenges faced by women. Crossed said she owns the building but FFL will manage it.
The organization has a handful of ideas for use of the building that relate to Anthony's legacy. One is to turn the house into a textile museum. Crossed said the museum would be fitting since the area was known for its mills in the 1800s and Anthony's father was a mill owner and operator. She said the museum could be tied into women's labor issues of the past and present.
Another idea is to turn the house into a home for pregnant students who need support and resources to continue their education. Crossed said this option could include a partnership with a local college and social service organization. With the help of local social services it could also cater to the needs of expecting single mothers in the community who needed help. FFL believes that the reason some women choose abortion is because they do not have the resources available to continue a pregnancy and make ends meet. The home could give such women another option.
"Susan B. Anthony was very concerned that women have all of their needs met when they were pregnant," Crossed said. "This option could help facilitate those needs."
A third idea is to make the home into a woman's retreat center that could double as a bed and breakfast. An earlier suggestion that has caused concern amongst local officials involves moving the house out of Adams to the campus of a college or university, either locally or possibly in New York state, for use as a women's studies center.
Crossed wished to stress that the exploration of that option is "minimal at this time" because FFL wants to focus on the other three alternatives, which would keep the house in its current location on East Road.
"Certainly we don't think moving the house is the best idea, I don't think anybody would disagree with that," she said. "But we do think it would be a better idea to move the house and utilize it than to let it sit there and have it not get any funds or grants that would promote the use of it as a museum."
Crossed said FFL will be incorporating its own ideals into the use of the house, adding that many of its views are based off of Susan B. Anthony's own legacy. FFL particularly wants to stress Anthony's pro-life views which Crossed said have been left out of many studies on the woman's suffrage leader because they do not gel with the common feminist idea of a woman's right to chose.
"There's definitely going to be a pro-life aspect to this house," Crossed said. "It will be a minor part, a small part but it will not be excluded from what this house becomes."
Crossed said for the time being, FFL is focusing on some maintenance emergencies at house, including the collapse of the roof in the second week of November. She said the roof was repaired the week before Christmas but there are still drainage issues that need to be dealt with before a determination is made on its future. Crossed said the house is a remarkable legacy for the town of Adams and it needs to be "valued and cherished and appreciated."