Is abortion "the ultimate motherly act"?

Caitlin Moran thinks so

I don't agree . Nevertheless, I've seen and heard some half-decent arguments in its favour in my time. This isn't one of them. In fact, it makes me feel rather ill. For example, she criticizes the view that

The greatest mother — the perfect mother — would carry to term every child she conceived, no matter how disruptive or ruinous, because her love would be great enough for anything.

It is, though, rather ruinous to the baby's life to be killed, is it not? The heart of her argument is as follows:

[G]iven that both science and philosophy continue to struggle to define what the beginning of “life” is, wouldn’t it be better to come at the debate from a different angle entirely? For if a pregnant woman has dominion over life, why should she not also have dominion over not-life? This is a concept understood by many other cultures. The Hindu goddess Kali is both Mother of the Whole Universe, and Devourer of All Things. She is life and death. If women are, by biology, commanded to host, shelter, nurture and protect life, why should they not be empowered to end life, too?

But if that's true...

I’m not advocating stoving in the heads of children, or encouraging late abortions

Why not? It follows from the Kali argument.

Ultimately, I don’t understand antiabortion arguments that centre on the sanctity of life. As a species, we’ve fairly comprehensively demonstrated that we don’t believe in the sanctity of life.

And that's a good thing?!?

I don’t understand why pregnant women — women trying to make rational decisions about their futures — should be subject to more pressure about preserving life than, say, Vladimir Putin.

This makes no sense. I don't like what Putin's doing. I don't like what Ms Moran is doing (and has done) either. And what makes it worse is that her case is not in any way one of those testers, like rape or a handicapped child. She "was just too tired". I don't know, maybe I'm just too naïve or deluded or plain young to get this - and anyway, I'm a man, so I obviously have no right speaking on this topic at all - but I thought contraception was pretty good these days. I didn't realise anyone had to get pregnant in the first place. And I agree with commenter Daniel Webster from New York, who noted that

Rest assured, someday your children will be rationalising about the "ultimately loving act" of sparing the world from another "unwanted parent"