“If the pro-choice stance is so precarious that a story about someone who chose to carry a risky pregnancy to term undermines it, then CBS is not the problem.”
That line is from Sally Jenkins’ must-read column in the Washington Post. Jenkins is a feminist and is pro-choice. Nevertheless, she believes that the National Organization for Women (NOW) needs to stop hyperventilating about Tim Tebow’s forthcoming pro-life Superbowl Ad. She writes,
“Apparently NOW feels this commercial is an inappropriate message for America to see for 30 seconds, but women in bikinis selling beer is the right one. I would like to meet the genius at NOW who made that decision. On second thought, no, I wouldn’t.”
Jenkins is right on target with that critique. Having said that, her candid assessment of what’s at stake in abortion is nothing short of astonishing coming from a pro-choicer. She writes,
“Tebow himself is an inescapable fact: Abortion doesn’t just involve serious issues of life, but of potential lives, Heisman trophy winners, scientists, doctors, artists, inventors, Little Leaguers — who would never come to be if their birth mothers had not wrestled with the stakes and chosen to carry those lives to term. And their stories are every bit as real and valid as the stories preferred by NOW.”
I can hardly comprehend that one can remain pro-choice and believe that abortion takes the lives of future doctors, artists, inventors, etc. She seems to recognize the humanity of the unborn, but she won’t grant their inalienable right to life. That seems to me to be a fundamental contradiction at the heart of an otherwise very helpful article.
Go read the rest of this one. You’ll be glad you did.
5 Comments
rach
wow! that is all i can say right now…wow!
Donald Johnson
I think the con is that they see it as “potential life” which in a contradiction in terms, but that is the way they are taught to see it.
Micah the pilot
Sally’s best lines:
Tebow’s 30-second ad hasn’t even run yet, but it already has provoked “The National Organization for Women Who Only Think Like Us†to reveal something important about themselves: They aren’t actually “pro-choice†so much as they are pro-abortion.
russware
“Apparently NOW feels this commercial is an inappropriate message for America to see for 30 seconds, but women in bikinis selling beer is the right one.”
Priceless.
Jeff
Got a mini-crush on Sally Jenkins right now….ok, it’s over. But, it was good while it lasted. I’m impressed she’s willing to speak honestly and not just dance around the issues…