From a comment I made on the New York Times website in response to an article regarding Samuel Alito’s leaked majority opinion preceding SCOTUS’ historic Dobbs vs. Jackson ruling:
The second sentence of Alito’s leaked opinion offers a key perspective that should provide Democrats with some insight into how much ground they have lost in this debate: “Some believe fervently that a human person comes into being at conception and that abortion ends an innocent life.”
The America that acknowledges abortion as a basic right is the America in which both sides of this debate concede the above sentence.
Indeed, abortion ends innocent life. But the life it ends is nothing but a clump of cells. It has no consciousness, no quality, and no meaning beyond that ascribed to it by the mother. It is innocent only because a life devoid of experience has had no opportunities to err.
On the other hand, a woman forced to carry a child to term against her will is affected in a tragically meaningful way; her life goals and quality can easily be compromised, and she may be forced to experience significant suffering and pain needlessly. Does our society see women as mere vessels meant to grow cells? Democrats should learn to frame this debate as exactly what it is: weighing the interests of a conscious and meaningful life against the interests of a life devoid of consciousness, feelings, memories, or experiences.
Nobody is arguing that women should be encouraged to have abortions, or that people who do not want them should reconsider. But trusting a woman to make the decision that is best for herself is inherently worth sacrificing a tiny clump of cells once in a while.
deaf-child 
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