‘So What if Abortion Ends Life?’: Pro-Choice Writer Says Some Babies Are ‘Worth Sacrificing’
Jan. 24, 2013 2:12pm
Abortion continues to be a
highly-contentious issue, even as this week marks the 40th anniversary
since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court verdict was handed down. It’s a
never-ending battle, typically colored by raw emotion. While one polar
side traditionally argues that life begins at the moment of conception,
the other tends to shy away from any recognition that the unborn qualify
as human lives.
This pro-life versus pro-choice dynamic
often leads to intense clashes in the public sphere, with both sides
accusing the other of restricting rights and advocating
damaging policies. In a new piece that
was published this week, Salon’s Mary Elizabeth Williams, a pro-choice
adherent, decides not to steer clear of the “life” issue and asks: “So
what if abortion ends life?”
The question, itself, is enough to send
anti-abortion advocates into a tizzy. Williams, who identifies herself
as pro-choice, takes a divergent route from others on the left who have
staunch views about abortion rights. Rather than denying the fact that
fetuses are human lives, she, like pro-lifers, fully embraces this
ideal. However, Williams differentiates between the rights that the
unborn have from those that belong to women.
“Yet I know that throughout my own
pregnancies, I never wavered for a moment in the belief that I was
carrying a human life inside of me. I believe that’s what a fetus is: a
human life,” Williams wrote. “And that doesn’t make me one iota less solidly pro-choice.”
She went on to decry the “semantic
power” that is inherent within the modern-day debate, taking particular
aim at those who oppose abortion by using the word “life” to win the
debate. But rather than cowering to what the writer says are the
“sneaky, dirty tricks of the anti-choice lobby,” Williams proposes that
pro-choice advocates should not cower when the word “life” is brought
into the discussion. Instead, she believes that pro-choicers should
double down and explain why women should have more rights than fetuses.
“Here’s the complicated reality in
which we live: All life is not equal,” she wrote. “That’s a difficult
thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like
death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm
troopers.”
See, Williams believes that a fetus,
while it is a human life, does not need to be afforded the same rights
as the woman who it resides in. She goes on to say that the woman is the
“boss” and that it is her right to decide whether having that baby fits
in with her life circumstances and health. In the end, Williams argues
that this personal decision — predicated upon a woman’s individual
situation — should always take precedent over the fetus that is inside
of the female.
As for the semantics surrounding
abortion, Williams calls for pro-choice advocates to be less squeamish,
especially when it comes to avoiding whether or not an unborn baby
should be considered a “life.” “When we try to act like a pregnancy
doesn’t involve human life, we wind up drawing stupid semantic lines in
the sand: first trimester abortion vs. second trimester vs. late term,
dancing around the issue trying to decide if there’s a single magic
moment when a fetus becomes a person,” she continued.
“Are you human only when you’re born? Only when you’re viable outside
of the womb? Are you less of a human life when you look like a tadpole
than when you can suck on your thumb?”
At the end of the piece, Williams notes
that she believes that women’s lives can be saved in certain
circumstances and that the life of a mother should always be put before a
fetus. In these complicated scenarios, she said the unborn life being
aborted is, “A life worth sacrificing.”
Read the entire piece over at Salon.
(H/T: LifeNews.com)
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