Yesterday, the good people over at Abolish Human Abortion posted a video on their YouTube channel from their recent experience at the Walk for Life in San Francisco, CA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo4Cw15_5Po&list=UU9F7HnFzMU76AGVyWaiXZwg&index=12
(Caution: Contains Fowl Language)
In the video, there is a woman that is very disgusted at the Pro-Life group because they are showing pictures of what she initially refers to as “bloody fetuses” and states that doing so is “irresponsible”. The speaker responds by asking her if showing the images is such an irresponsible thing to do, how irresponsible is it for the abortionists to kill the babies. She states that her concern is for the children that might be passing by and then she proceeds to tell the Abolitionists to “get the F*&% out!” Apparently she’s not too concerned about them hearing expletive language as they pass by, but I digress.
As the scene progresses, she accuses the group of not being very Christ-like and claims that Jesus would not show pictures of “dead babies” to make his point. No longer are the subject of the pictures she was so disgusted by merely fetuses, but babies. She also readily admits that the babies are dead, implying that they were at one point alive.
Granted, the woman from San Francisco may not have realized what she was really saying, but in an article at salon.com last week, Mary Elizabeth Williams states, “I believe that life starts at conception. And it’s never stopped me from being pro-choice.”
Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either. In fact, you might want to go back and read it again.
Williams makes a case that sounds like it came out of a Randy Alcorn or Scott Klusendorf book that defends the pro-life position:
I have friends who have referred to their abortions in terms of “scraping out a bunch of cells” and then a few years later were exultant over the pregnancies that they unhesitatingly described in terms of “the baby” and “this kid.” I know women who have been relieved at their abortions and grieved over their miscarriages. Why can’t we agree that how they felt about their pregnancies was vastly different, but that it’s pretty silly to pretend that what was growing inside of them wasn’t the same? Fetuses aren’t selective like that. They don’t qualify as human life only if they’re intended to be born. 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?
She continues:
It seems absurd to suggest that the only thing that makes us fully human is the short ride out of some lady’s vagina. That distinction may apply neatly legally, but philosophically, surely we can do better.
I have to say, I couldn’t agree more! In fact, I’ve said very similar things in discussions with pro-aborts on Twitter and Facebook. She does a great job of defending the life-at-conception position. And yet she still believes that it is okay to terminate those human lives and kill babies. She even goes so far as to assert that doing so is the greater moral good because “all life is not equal.”
She claims that:
…a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. 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.
This article makes me feel bi-polar. I want to clap in approval at one paragraph and slap her in disgust the next. Williams is absolutely right when highlighting the logically fallacious philosophy behind the pro-choice position. But she could not be more wrong when justifying the murder of innocent human beings by putting “the life of a mother over the life of a fetus every single time”. How can she so clearly deconstruct the illogical positions of the pro-choice side, and yet not see her own failing logic?
Williams summarizes her position of justifying the murder of innocents by stating that the fetus is “a life worth sacrificing.”
I wonder upon what standard Ms. Williams would base her conclusion. How does one decide whose lives are more valuable in any given circumstance? If a single mother has already birthed a child, but can no longer afford to feed both her and the baby, is that baby a life worth sacrificing? How about a mom that decides that she wants to pursue a career or a college education and her toddler is getting in the way of her life goals. Is that toddler a life worth sacrificing? Where does this logic end? How do we determine the value of one life against another?
Have this culture become so selfish and pagan that people can boldly admit that they know they are killing human lives and are okay with it? The answer: yes.
WhateverForeverAmen 