UA Young Americans for Freedom hosted Elisha Krauss, a self-described home-birth hippie evangelist and pro-life conservative feminist, on Wednesday at the Student Center.
Krauss previously worked at The Daily Wire with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and was director of outreach at conservative nonprofit PragerU. She now is the youngest radio producer at ABC and travels the country giving pro-life speeches on college campuses.
Krauss reached out to UA YAF after meeting members at a national conference this summer and arranged the visit.
Throughout the lecture Krauss emphasized her belief that left-wing and pro-choice people are anti-woman.
“One thing that people who are pro-abortion never do is actually enforce laws that are already on the books that help single moms,” Krauss said. She also said conservatives are encouraging legislation to support paid parental leave, aid for fostering and adoption, in vitro fertilization, and child support.
The issue of IVF came to a head after Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled that embryos are humans, causing many IVF providers around the state to stop their services. Republicans in the Alabama legislature pledged to enact more protections for IVF following the passing of a law meant to be a temporary solution, but they never did.
Statistically, Americans identifying as Democrats have expressed more support for paid parental leave than Republicans, but both sides recently passed a bill in the house that fortifies support for children in foster care.
“Myself and others that are pro-life also think that child support should be back paid from the moment of conception, because science says that’s where life begins,” Krauss said. While scientists generally agree that life begins when an egg is fertilized, there is no consensus on whether or not that grants an embryo personhood.
Krauss doesn’t believe that voters who support abortion are malicious; instead, she said they’re victims of leftist disinformation.
“I don’t believe that Ohioans and Michiganders are bloodthirsty baby killers. Planned Parenthood is. The average voter in Midwestern states are actually misinformed,” Krauss said, referencing states that have less stringent abortion laws.
She was quick to point out that pro-life activists are not all innocent of abortion, claiming that one-third of the women who attend the March for Life, the annual pro-life protest in Washington D.C., are “post-abortive.” Krauss said that these women experienced physical and mental trauma after getting an abortion, which radicalized them.
Krauss also said that contrary to popular opinion, it is the Democratic Party that is anti-woman.
“If the left really cared about them, then they would do whatever they could to protect women from having to make a decision to harm themselves and their unborn child,” Krauss said. “It’s a greater physical risk to a woman to have an abortion than it is to have a baby, let alone have a baby naturally.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, legally induced abortion is safer than childbirth, and the death risk associated with childbirth is 14 times higher than the death risk associated with abortion.
Abortions can be life-saving procedures. In cases of extreme placental abruption, preeclampsia and cardiac conditions abortion may be the only option left to keep the patient alive. States where abortion is banned see more cases of pregnancy-related deaths compared to states where abortion is legal.
Krauss also said that the birth control pill is more harmful than helpful, calling it “evil and horrible and demeaning to women,” and that while left-wing feminists frame birth control as an equalizer what it actually does is take accountability away from the men who have sex with women.
Krauss said that legalizing abortion is telling women that they can’t do motherhood, that a baby will ruin their dreams and their only option is abortion.
Ilsa Katz, a sophomore majoring in international studies, said she learned about the event from tablings and chalkings around campus. Attending the event as a pro-life feminist, she wanted to learn more so she could inform others of the negative effects of abortion.
“The most important thing I learned was about the damages that abortion can do to a woman’s body, and that they can cause excessive bleeding and infertility in the future,” Katz said.
Krauss said that abortion comes with a high risk of pelvic infection, uterine damage, cervix damage, blood clots, excessive bleeding and urinary tract infections. She claimed that abortion is associated with a “dramatic increase in suicidality, depression, anxiety and future infertility.”
The Mayo Clinic reports that the majority of abortions are completely safe physically and mentally. Less than 3% of abortions experience complications compared to 46% of all pregnancies. The New England Journal of Medicine and several other medical publications have found no correlation between abortion and poor mental health. According to the NIH, “Induced abortion does not appear to have an important effect on future fertility.”
“I liked it because she gives a different picture than what people usually think about conservatives, because they think that if you are pro-life, then you are inherently anti-feminist in all regards,” said Kaitlyn Matthews, a sophomore majoring in marketing and hospitality management.
Speaking to the young crowd, Krauss left her audience with a final request.
“Think of a way that you can tangibly, every day — whether it’s financially, whether it’s through prayer or a text message — remember the kind side of pro-life,” Krauss said. “Do whatever you can every day to engage with others and be pro-life for the entirety of everyone’s life.”
