After abortion provider George Tiller was murdered in Kansas, NPR contacted Commonweal's editor, Paul Baumann, for a response. His contribution is up on their Opinion page today, along with short essays from the president of NARAL and "an anti-abortion doctor."From Paul's piece:

Anti-abortion advocates have done a good job of making their fellow citizens aware of the plight of the unborn. They have not done a good job of coming to terms with the concerns of women, or the complexity of abortion as a social problem. Legal reforms are necessary, but insufficient. Abortion was common enough before it was legalized, and outlawing it will not end the practice. It is a stubborn biological, legal, and moral reality that abortion is not just about the rights of the unborn. It is also about the moral autonomy, physical integrity, health and well-being of women. There is no other situation in which one human being is as dependent on another as is an unborn child on its mother. If abortion is starkly drawn as a battle of competing rights of the rights of the unborn versus the rights of women the unborn will always lose. We need a different approach, one that will promote the flourishing of both mother and child an approach that recognizes that their individual well-being is inseparable.

Please read the whole thing at NPR's site. (And before you ask: "anti-abortion" is the NPR editors' contribution; the original did say "prolife.")

Mollie Wilson O’​Reilly is editor-at-large and columnist at Commonweal.

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