In October 2013, Jessica Valenti, a pro-abortion writer for The Guardian, opened up about her own abortion experience. Without mentioning the word “abortion” once, Valenti shares how ending the life of her unborn child was incredibly difficult because she always wanted a sibling for her daughter, Layla.
However, she believed it was her only option because she suffered from HELLP Syndrome, which is a variant of preeclampsia and can be life-threatening in pregnant women. In fact, her and her daughter nearly died as a result of the condition.
There is no doubt that the situation Valenti found herself in was heartbreaking and no one should ever question that. But unfortunately, her situation doesn’t change that abortion is fundamentally wrong, no matter what. Her baby, whether 8-weeks-old or 20-weeks-old in utero, is a human person and deserved her utmost protection. The fact that her baby had a heartbeat, was metabolizing nutrition, moving and growing isn’t up for debate, those are objective facts.
Now, Valenti has shared publicly about another abortion she had in her twenty’s but for a very different reason. In an article in The Guardian she wrote the following:
“I’ve written about ending my wanted pregnancy and the turmoil I faced with the decision, but I’ve never before spoken publicly about my first abortion – not because I was ashamed, but because it truly didn’t have that tremendous of an impact on my life. If anything, being able to have that abortion made my life better: I was able to publish my first book, meet my now-husband, cultivate the life that I’m living and build the family that I love.
Maybe you think that’s callous. But the truth is that, despite the abortion stories that often dominate the public pro-choice narrative – the wanted pregnancies that must end because of health concerns or severe fetal abnormalities – most people who end their pregnancies do it for the same reason I did that first time in my 20s: Some women just don’t want to be pregnant – and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Honestly, Valenti’s candor is quite refreshing. She supports abortion-on-demand and believes that abortion is every woman’s right. She doesn’t feel bad about her decision to end her baby’s life; instead she’s thankful for it because it “made her life better.” Unlike some abortion advocates, she believes it’s totally fine if a woman wants an abortion because she doesn’t want to be pregnant. In her book, no explanation is ever needed because abortion is always okay.
At the end of the day, Valenti is a true abortion extremist, who will oppose even the most modest restrictions on abortion. Once she even said, “I think abortion should be legal without any restrictions – no parental consent laws, no mandated ultrasounds, no waiting periods, no bans on late term abortions and no bans on federal funding for abortion. I also believe people should be able to become parents when they want, how they want and without interference from the government.”
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Nevertheless, once again Valenti doesn’t understand that abortion is a black and white issue. Abortion doesn’t become okay when a baby has a fetal abnormality, Down syndrome, or when the circumstances of a woman’s pregnancy are horrific; abortion doesn’t become okay when a woman lives in poverty and can’t afford another child; and abortion doesn’t become okay if the unborn baby is 8-weeks-old or 28-weeks-old.
The crux of the matter is pro-life ideology is based on objective facts of science, which prove that unborn children are a part of the human family the minute they are conceived. So really, in one way Valenti is right: justifying abortion doesn’t change anything about the action. Where she’s wrong? Regardless of reason and every single time—abortion kills a person and that can never be just “okay.”
