For the love of Susan B. Anthony

February 14, 2012

As I travel the country by train to share the rich history of the early American feminists, I following the same routes that Susan B. Anthony took to champion women's suffrage more than a century ago. She knew every route by heart.

But Anthony was more than just the leader of the suffrage movement. She and her sister Mary were Quakers who welcomed Frederick Douglas and other abolitionists into their home in Rochester, New York.

On a number of occasions Anthony also shared her opposition to abortion. But my favorite quote of Anthony's is about her support for solutions.

Suffragist Frances Willard recorded a compliment a man once paid to Susan B. Anthony, "you of all women I have met ought to have been a wife and mother." Anthony responded, "I thank you, sir...but sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been for 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."

Today we celebrate Valentine's Day.

It is also the eve of Susan B. Anthony's birthday, a woman who never married, never had children of her own, who babysat for Elizabeth Cady Stanton's children, and who focused on the root causes that drove women to abortion.

Real love often requires sacrifice, and it begins with education. Help us share the "Voices of Our Feminist Foremothers."

In anticipation of Women's History Month, (March), and thanks to the generosity of donors like you, Feminists for Life is able to provide FREE packets of recently updated "Voices of Our Feminist Foremothers" brochures and issues of "March Forth!" to campus groups in a new feminist history kit by Students for Life of America. (If you are a student group who wants these free materials, let us know at coordinator@ffloncampus.org.)

Other activists should order them NOW at reduced bulk rates through Covetable Stuff.

As Susan B. Anthony said on the occasion of her 80th birthday, "Whatever I have done has been done because I wanted to see better conditions, better surroundings, better circumstances for women,"

Help us change hearts. Share this e-mail with those you love. Consider making a gift, especially a tribute gift in honor or memory of someone you love today. Thank you.

Because women deserve better,
Serrin M. Foster
President

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