A columnist writing for MSNBC in the United States has compared pro-lifers to the Taliban, which this week took over Afghanistan after President Joe Biden withdrew U.S. forces from the country.
Columnist Dean Obeidallah asserted that pro-lifers, especially those whose anti-abortion views arise from “extreme religious beliefs”, are akin to the Taliban, whose oppression of women in Afghanistan is infamous.
The columnist also said that attempts to introduce pro-life legislation in the United States were tantamount to the Taliban’s anti-women policies in Afghanistan.
The Taliban have previously prevented women from attending school and denied them careers, as well as subjected them to brutal punishments, such as stoning.
Obeidallah said that, while pro-lifers and the Taliban were not “equally as bad”, the efforts of pro-lifers to “deprive women of freedom over their own bodies” was just as oppressive and extreme.
In the same opinion piece, Obeidallah also stated that abortion should be “a guaranteed human right”.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “Dean Obeidallah’s foolishness speaks for itself. In his inane attempt to slander pro-lifers, especially pro-life Christians and other religious groups, he has unmasked his own ‘extremist’ point of view and sad inaccessibility to logic.
“To be pro-life is to be pro-woman, many of whom are aborted every day, sometimes to a greater extent than men in cultures that value males more highly, as we have seen in China and India.
“To be anti-abortion is to oppose a culture that exposes women to the misdeeds of men who use and exploit women and expect them to have an abortion should they become pregnant.
“Sadly, SPUC has reported on several horrific cases of women who were brutally murdered because they refused demands to abort their babies.
“To ignore the violence inherent in abortion and its anti-women ethic, while placing well-meaning and loving pro-lifers on a par with the Taliban, is not only bewildering, but also profoundly offensive.”
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