New York Health Commissioner Mary T. Bassett has boasted that she is a “committed mother” and successful career woman because she had an abortion. SPUC has said that such comments “only serve to perpetuate the harmful narrative that mothers are unwelcome in the workplace and must choose between the life of their child or a career”, which “is far from empowering”.
Health Commissioner Bassett has claimed that “had it not been for the abortion I received before I began my internship, I would not be New York’s Health Commissioner today”.
She added: “I would not be the committed mother that I have been able to be to my two adult daughters for over 34 years. These two wonderful women might not even be here.”
In 2020, the actress Michelle Williams, accepting an award at the Golden Globes, implied that she owed her success and her award to an abortion she procured years earlier.
Similarly, Joan Collins, best known for appearing in the 1980s US soap Dynasty, claimed in 2021 that having an abortion at the age of 26 suited her career, as reported by SPUC.
“I had an abortion… I was a feminist before the word was heard and I shall do what I felt was right for me… It [the unborn child] would have ruined my life… it would have ruined my life”, she said.
A “far from empowering” anti-mother narrative
SPUC’s Michael Robinson, Executive Director (Public Affairs and Legal Services), said: “An unborn child is an innocent human being who has as much of a right to life as a born child. Sacrificing unborn children for the sake of a career, no matter how much a person might try to justify it, is far from empowering and is not what parenthood is about.
“While it is, of course, delightful that Health Commissioner Bassett now has two wonderful daughters, she might also have had an equally wonderful third child, a son or daughter, who, because of abortion, will never have a career or have the chance to be a parent themselves.
“Empowerment is ultimately about confronting the challenges of life with courage and confidence. Abortion is the exact opposite of this. Otherwise, why should Bassett have to justify her abortion at all? Not because it was empowering.
“Increasingly, SPUC is seeing cases of mothers being discriminated against in the workplace because they choose to have children. Pro-abortion comments from Bassett and others only serve to perpetuate this harmful narrative that mothers are unwelcome at work and must choose between the life of their child or a career.
“Rather than making mothers feel that abortion is the only way out of a crisis pregnancy, Bassett should be using her position of significant influence to help mothers to have a career AND be mothers. Not only would that be truly wonderful, but it would also be genuinely progressive and empowering, for everyone involved, including unborn children.”