Why does ‘pro-life’ mean disregarding the actual lives of pregnant people?

Years ago I wrote about abortion doulas, volunteers who offer support to pregnant people who have chosen to end their pregnancies. One evening while I was reporting the story, a few doulas talked about their concept of life. Did it begin at 16 weeks? 24? When, precisely, was it morally too late for them to personally support someone having an abortion?

But then one volunteer shrugged, saying the answer actually wasn’t that important to her. She didn’t need to know when life “began” for a fetus incubating in someone else’s body, she said. She only needed to know that there was already a living patient, one with hopes and dreams and loved ones and responsibilities, and that person did not want to be pregnant.

This view required accepting only one premise, the doula said: that women’s physical and emotional lives were important — more important, in fact, than an unborn fetus.

Last week foreshadowed a continued thwacking-away at abortion rights in the United States. The Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson, a case that would prohibit abortion after 15 weeks and effectively decimate Roe v. Wade. A few days later, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a state law banning abortions at the first sign of a heartbeat — a ludicrous bill that would require many people to obtain abortions before they even know they are pregnant.

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