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‘So What if Abortion Ends Life?’: Pro-Choice Writer Says Some Babies Are ‘Worth Sacrificing’

Jan. 24, 2013 2:12pm Billy Hallowell

Salons Mary Elizabeth Williams Asks: So What if Abortion Ends Life?

Photo Credit: AP

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.”

Photo Credit: AP

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 and commentary on TheBlaze blog.

(H/T: LifeNews.com)

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Comments (350)

ILUVPORK
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:29pm
If you can’t afford a child get fixed,your tubes tied ,until you can have the time and provide for your child .Since government wants to raise our children then they need to teach them RESPONSIBILTY! Paying for birth control will last till age 50 or more.Why doesn’t she suggest getting your tubes tied as a form of birth control seems to me she loves the barbaric practice.Guys getting fixed.. you know it still works if you want to be a swinger.

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xendude
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:28pm
The secular progressives are returning us to a state of mind most have heard of but know very little about. Does anyone remember Baal, more importantly what the basic practicing of worship required? Once I realized this I know why

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nonofmybiznez
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:28pm
“So what if abortion ends life?” So why do these people have a problem with us killing and eating cattle, pigs and chickens?

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nonofmybiznez
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:24pm
It makes no sense that these people have a problem with causing pain to a lobster before it is cooked, but dismember a baby that is alive in the womb? That’s right, they tear the baby’s arms and legs off during an abortion. Of course if doesn’t feel pain….right? How about that lobster now?

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Rott1
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:21pm
This is a very interesting, and disturbing, article. If the pro-choice crowd is now willing to abandon the “it isn’t a baby; it’s a fetus” argument, and accept that life begins at conception, but is still willing to abort it, why does the act of childbirth have to be the abortion cut-off? I mean, if a week after you have your baby, you decide that it is too much of a burden, why not just kill it. That child’s life started 9 months and 1 week ago; the only difference is it passed from being inside the mother to now outside. Scary!!

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angelcat
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:21pm
Reading this article made me nausated. It is the height of arrogance for this woman to think that she is capable of judging what babies are worthy of birth and which are not worthy. She makes herself an all-knowing god – a false god. What a completely repulsive person! She probably doesn’t believe in God, but she surely needs His grace and our prayers.

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TheGrtDcptn
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:18pm
‘so what if abortion ends life, some babies are worth sacrificing’

Let’s change up william’s words a bit, shall we…?!..

So what if guns end life, some lives are worth sacrificing…

Is that okay…?!…NO…?!…WHY NOT…?!?!…

In HER OWN WORDS…’Here’s the complicated reality in which we live: All life is **not** equal.’

Which is it America…?!

abortion = worth sacrificing

guns = MUST BAN…’For the CHILDREN’…!!!

May GOD have mercy on your soul(s)…you’re gonna need it…

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GuruMeditation
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:14pm
Williams is shallow.

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jinxycat
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:12pm
She argues that one life IS more important than another?! And the mother is the boss? What if that baby was going to be the next Gandhi – or MLK – or Einstein? If it was the next Hitler, great. But who how many people has this country killed that might have been IMPORTANT when grown?

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- txdavo
  Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:27pm
  To date, Jinxycat, we have killed about 50,000,000 since the Roe vs. Wade ruling in 1973.
  
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- tradcatholicgirl
  Posted on January 24, 2013 at 4:04pm
  Junxycat,
  
  All babies are important. Whether they grow up to be MLK, or they struggle their whole lives and never become productive or healthy citizens. God loves them all equally.
  
  That is the whole point of the pro-life argument. All human life is deserving of love and dignity…even the bad ones. God does not create anything bad.
  
  Would you love one child over another if one was an “important” person and one was just barely getting along? Hopefully the answer is no. Well, multiply that love you feel for both kids by an infinity..and now you know the Love of God and why each LIFE is equally as important.
  
  Report this comment
Sharon Rose
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:09pm
Pro-choice is poor wording, it should be pro-murder!

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@leftfighter
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:06pm
“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.”

Well, congrats. That’s exactly what you look like.

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Kupo
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:02pm
Well, at least she’s honest.

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txdavo
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:01pm
In 2009 (the latest year with any data available from the CDC) there were 784,507 abortions reported to the CDC. That is 227 abortions for every 1000 live births. That same year there were 0.036 homicides with a firearm for every 1000 people in the US. We allowed 6,135 babies to be killed by abortion for every one person murdered with a firearm. WHAT are we?

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Fuzzball
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:56pm
Now we know why there is a hell- for people who would kill these precious little babies

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Lord_Frostwind
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:55pm
I have heard this argument before, “your life is not worth another’s.” Perhaps, the truth of the matter is that some life is expendable, people make decisions, some of which make them deserving of death. Some people will give their lives for some cause, and others still will die because of forces beyond our ability to comprehend; destiny, fate, chance, whatever you choose to believe.

My problem, however is when that life is taken from the defenseless. That something which cannot protect itself and has done no wrong is snuffed out. I have an unbelievable hatred of people who strike against a defenseless target, and while I hold myself back, I acknowledge that this case is the most defenseless form of human there is.

Oh the things I wish I could do, but wishes in the grand scheme of things are useless. So I will continue instead to call this what it is, and I will continue to fight it in every legal avenue that is available to me. Death is an inescapable part of life, but death of the innocent because it is an inconvenience is unforgivable.

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theninthplanet
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:52pm
Well at least they’re being intellectually honest.

You can’t argue with people that refuse to acknowledge truth.

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thibx
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:51pm
some life can be done away with she writes but not her kids. just wait until we get the same policies china has. what will she think then. most people who have had an abortion live the rest of their life regreting it. democrat platform hates God, they believe in lots of welfare. the kids get medical attention from the time they are born. free prenatal care and all expense paid for the kid when born. the lazy no good person who puts this on the taxpayer is the one that needs to be casterated. no morals in the democrat party. they need to be casterated before they multiply.

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WarMunger_Al
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:49pm
Such sick and twisted people. There are not words to describe this depravity. All life is not equal?
Isn’t that what Hitler said?

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FISH_BONE
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:49pm
No one with a soul will even consider murdering their own child no matter what form or what level of development that child is in.

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:49pm
Liberals, the culture of death.

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HKS
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:48pm
Looks like somebody missed one.

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TheGrtDcptn
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:48pm
Salon…?!…

This couldn’t possibly be the same Salon that was used to debunk Sandy Hook…nah…

Glenn would NEVER spew liberal propaganda as truth…

snopes…salon…pffttt…

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- soybomb315_II
  Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:50pm
  lol
  
  Report this comment
kryptonite
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:47pm
I don’t agree with the “boss” concept or the other vile liberal jargon used, but I honestly *would* put the life of the mother before that of her unborn child, although most pro-life women almost invariably want to protect their unborn baby over their own life.

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onetoomany
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:46pm
This is not news. The pro-abortion people have been acknowledging this for a long time, with ultrasound, etc., they can’t help it. The only thing that surprises me is that she keeps referring to herself and others like her as “pro-choice”, yet vilifies those who call themselves “pro-life” while she calls them “anti-abortion”. After all of this “coming clean” and admonishing her side, she still can’t call them “pro-abortion.” Still a hypocrite.

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BasketFullOfPuppies
Posted on January 24, 2013 at 2:45pm
I wonder what her argument will be when some whacko decides that she doesn’t have a right to continue living? Her argument is the same one that gives rise to people like Hitler and Stalin… that all are equal, just that some are more equal than others. It never seems to go away.

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- Clownzilla
  Posted on January 24, 2013 at 3:42pm
  That Stalin or Hitler would be her boss so they would have the right to kill her. Just using her own logic…..
  
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