An amazingly brazen article by Antonia Senior in the London Times argues that life begins at conception, but the destruction of that life is a lesser evil than the denial of a woman’s full control over her fertility. The article’s conclusion:
The mystery pondered on many a girls’ night out is how on earth men, bless them, managed to hang on to political and cultural hegemony for so long. The only answer is that they are not in hock to their biology as much as we are. Look at a map of the world and the right to abortion on request correlates pretty exactly with the expectation of a life unburdened by misogyny.
As ever, when an issue we thought was black and white becomes more nuanced, the answer lies in choosing the lesser evil. The nearly 200,000 aborted babies in the UK each year are the lesser evil, no matter how you define life, or death, for that matter. If you are willing to die for a cause, you must be prepared to kill for it, too.
I think Ms. Senior says bluntly what many others believe more quietly: Regardless of the fetus’ status, the right to abort is primary.
Quite a frightening perspective.
HT: Denny Burk