by Sara J.
This morning during Glenn's interview with Senator Rand Paul, Glenn discussed an recent article on Salon supporting Roe v. Wade on it's 40th anniversary. Glenn referred to the article as "absolutely incredible," because of its honesty on the issue. The writer of the article not only admits that she knows an abortion does end a life, she thinks that perfectly fine. Why? Because, in her opinion, not all life is equal.
Unhinged honesty… That's the only positive aspect to this Salon article titled, "So what if abortion ends life?". The piece, written by Mary Elizabeth Williams, centers around her believe that yes, abortion ends a life, and that's a-okay.
"I believe that life starts at conception. And it's never stopped me from being pro-choice."
Williams claims that the anti-abortionists have "co-opted" the word "life". Ironic considering she admits that life does begins at conception; therefore, "life" is what abortion opponents are fighting to protect. While the left may wish the issue of abortion is centered around the woman, those who oppose abortion don't hate women. They are fighting for the rights of an innocent human life, therefore "pro-life" is hardly a straw man. She might have a point if pro-lifers called themselves "anti-murders," but that's not the case.
Of all the diabolically clever moves the anti-choice lobby has ever pulled, surely one of the greatest has been its consistent co-opting of the word “life.” Life! Who wants to argue with that? Who wants be on the side of … not-life? That’s why the language of those who support abortion has for so long been carefully couched in other terms.
If by "carefully couched in other terms," she means relabeling the right to life to a mere "choice", then sure. To those who were taught about the birds and the bees, and are aware of the many forms of birth control, the "choice" to evade pregnancy should happen before the creation of life (obviously rape is a different situation -- not a situation that removes the equality of life, but one where choice is violently eliminated).
While opponents of abortion eagerly describe themselves as “pro-life,” the rest of us have had to scramble around with not nearly as big-ticket words like “choice” and “reproductive freedom.” The “life” conversation is often too thorny to even broach.
The writer also seems to be under the impression that the argument against is because of pro-life advocates. The fight for life is a reaction to an attack on life — in this case the most innocent of life. The right to life is not only one of the most basic tenants of our founding documents, it's the most basic of human rights the left loves to claim they're fighting for. Calling abortion rights advocates "pro-choice" isn't something abortion advocates had to scramble for. It's a deceitful term used to make women feel like someone is trying to take away their rights when they're fighting for the right of a child to be born.
Honestly, how "pro-choice" is someone who supports the removal of the most basic human right known to man? In her own words this writer says, "I believe that’s what a fetus is: a human life."
The right to life is such a strong tenant of this country that it caused America to go to war with itself in order to put an end slavery. And if there weren't such strong defenders of life and equal rights segregation would still exist, women wouldn't have the right to vote, and WWII would have likely had a much different ending.
Here’s the complicated reality in which we live: All life is not equal. 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. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides.
Given the honesty in the statement above, the next appropriate question would have to be…when does a human life attain the same rights as those of us lucky enough to have been born? Once your an adult, living and working on your own? Until then are mothers free to kill their children? It's unlikely she feels that way.
She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always.
Most would agree that the woman is the boss in this situation, and unless her pregnancy was the result of rape, she made the decision on "her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health," when the child was created. The child is merely a product of how responsible she was with "the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her" …if you know what I mean.
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. 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?
The honesty in this article, which while frightening, should be appreciated by those fighting for life. It draws a brand new set of "semantic lines in the sand." (A set that was already established in our Constitution.)
Is all life equal?
In her own words, Ms. Williams considers pro-lifers are "wing nuts" who intimidate the left away from these conversations. Equal rights have been fought for by wing nuts in the minority of an issue before -- wing nuts like Martin Luther King, Jr. That's pretty good company.
While attempting to defend Roe vs. Wade, this article makes abortion completely illegal and unconstitutional. This article comes just shy of calling abortion killing for circumstantial convenience.
Americans have the right to life. Pro-lifers should be celebrating and sharing this article. While Williams may think she has done the left a great justice by finally removing the straw men in the pro-choice "when does life begin" argument, what she's really done is exposed all the disturbing truths about abortion. The revelations that cause many former Roe vs. Wade supporters to become pro-life — the things that make the light-bulb turn on and cause you to realize an unborn child is in fact a life.
