WASHINGTON — Limiting “women’s issues” to a woman’s potential to be a mother — as well as trying to deny that potential — does not empower women, a panel told members of Congress and their staff on Tuesday.

Rather, “women’s issues” extend across the range of all issues facing society, panelists said June 17 at “Women Know Best” on Capitol Hill.

Jeanne Monahan, president of the March for Life, said that political slogans claiming opposition to abortion is akin to a war on women is “messaging that does a real disservice, especially to young women.”

In this approach, she said, a woman is “defined maybe too much by her reproductive capabilities” and not by other aspects of her personhood.

The potential to be a mother, she said, “is a huge part of what it means to be a woman, but it’s not the only part.”

Monahan spoke at “Women Know Best,” along with Mercedes Schlapp, co-founder of Cove Strategies and a political commentator; Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life lobby Susan B. Anthony List; former Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-N.Y.; and Carly Fiorina, chairman of the American Conservative Union Foundation and a former technology executive.

Fiorina, who gave a keynote address, urged attendees to “share an empathic, personal and optimistic message” on life, saying women who are pro-life and who hold other positions thought of as politically conservative should “stand up and say what they believe and why.”

She stressed that “science is proving to us every day that life starts at conception,” even though legislation in the U.S. has yet to recognize this biological fact.

She emphasized the need to “get the problem solved” and to take “one step in protecting the unborn” by supporting bans on late-term abortions after five months of pregnancy.

Despite these challenges, Fiorina said, she is “optimistic, because I have great faith in other people and their potential.”

“The message and the messenger are equally important,” Schlapp emphasized, saying that women “need to continue to be strong advocates for the unborn and defend our religious liberties.”

“Part of the challenge is articulating a pro-life message in a personal way that makes sense, is simple and can connect” with people, she said, adding that pro-life advocates should work through a “step-by-step process” to create “real change in favor of the pro-life movement.”

Monahan emphasized that a message that embraces life is a “very beautiful thing” and allows “women to most completely flourish.”

In contrast, she added, “to pretend that a women’s capacity to bear children is insignificant is not empowering to women,” particularly when abortion causes harm to society, to children and to women themselves.

Instead, she told the audience, “All issues are women’s issues. We don’t leave out any part of her: That’s part of the whole person.”