The Antiabortion Movement’s Reclamation of Mary Wollstonecraft and the Future of Feminist Recovery

Abstract: The overturning of Roe v. Wade (1973) prompted media outlets from The New York Times to CNN to highlight antiabortion feminists, including Erika Bachiochi, the director of a conservative feminist think tank called The Wollstonecraft Project. This article sets conservative feminism’s reclamation of Wollstonecraft alongside the work of literary historians who recovered her long ago as the “mother of feminism.” This body of work establishes Wollstonecraft’s inability to serve as a fore-mother for antiabortion feminists. At the same time, Bachiochi’s reclamation of Wollstonecraft points to the uncertain foundation Wollstonecraft’s work provides for defenses of sexual freedom. The different Wollstonecrafts that emerge from this essay invite questions about the function and future of feminist recovery.