This article sets out the position, generally supported by both pro-life and pro-choice feminists, that pregnant women need a full portfolio of rights in order to make a free choice about continuing with a pregnancy.
Pregnancy rights
Pregnancy rights
Some abortion rights activists believe that abortion should be just one of a portfolio of the pregnant woman's rights.
They believe that in the end, it is up to the pregnant woman herself to determine whether to terminate or to continue with her pregnancy.
But if a pregnant woman is to have a real choice about the future of her pregnancy (i.e. not to be forced into an abortion because of poverty, or social pressure etc.), certain legal, economic and social measures must to be available to support the woman, whatever decision she takes regarding the pregnancy.
So if, as in some third world countries, it is impossible for a woman with a child to survive economically on her own because the culture is based around the traditional family, a pregnant single woman does not have a free choice as to whether to have an abortion or bear a child.
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