Liberation Atheology as Feminist Liberation from Patriarchy, Misogyny
Religion is a powerful force in the oppression of women. The fight for political, social, and cultural equality always means fighting religious leaders and institutions. Submission to religious traditions keep women submissive to men and patriarchy; removing religion removes religious and theological justifications for patriarchy. Insofar as patriarchy survives, it is weaker and harder to defend. Liberation atheology plays a role by undermining faith and confidence in traditional religion.
Should the decision to have an abortion be treated as a valid, moral, and even normal choice in a woman's life? Many people don't think so, and that includes Christians who are anti-choice as well as Christians who are ostensibly supporters of legalized abortion. Does it make sense to defend a woman's right to choose, but then denigrate women who do choose? Actually it can make sense to support a right to choose but not agree with all choices, but not if you also denigrate those who choose.
Many people who oppose legal abortion or who only weakly support legal abortion will often focus their objections on the idea of 'abortion on demand.' They see something wrong with abortion being readily available. But if abortion is not available when women want it (on demand), what is the point of it being legal? If abortion is legal because women should be able to make autonomous decisions about what happens to their bodies, how can abortion not be made available when they demand it?
There seems to be a common attitude shared even by some abortion rights supporters that abortions shouldn't be too easy to obtain. People feel that if abortions are easy to get, then they would be abused - as if women can't be trusted. Does it make sense to treat abortion as a constitutional right, but not one women should have easy access to? We don't do this with other rights but it allows religious authority figures can interfere without having to fight legal battles over criminalizing it.
Conservative Christians exhibit a strange obsession with fetuses. They seem willing to sacrifice any level of women's personal autonomy and civil rights in the 'interests' of the fetus, even though similar measures would not be taken to protect the interests of a fully-grown and conscious adult human in analogous circumstances. Perhaps this is because their agenda is less about the alleged interests of a fetus and more about promoting a patriarchal culture in which women are kept subordinate.
