President of NOW: ‘I Don’t Care’ That Life Begins at Conception

You are not signed in as a Premium user; you are viewing the free version of this program. Premium users have access to full-length programs with limited commercials and receive a 10% discount in the store! Sign up for only one day for the low cost of $1.99. Click the button below.

See All Plans

SEATTLE (ChurchMilitant.com) - The president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) is declaring she doesn't care that life begins at conception and supports abortion anyway.

In an interview with Seattle radio host Jason Rantz Thursday, who asked NOW president Terry O'Neill if she would support abortion if science proved life began at conception, O'Neill responded, "I don’t care. Of course, I would support abortion."

Taken aback, the host remarked that her answer "seems very extreme." He further questioned, "Take religion out of it, and we have shown through science that life begins the moment that a fetus is created. This is not the potential for life — that is life. You are saying that you do support abortion. Isn't that the textbook definition of murder in that case?"

O'Neill answered, "Take religion out of it and we are not even having this conversation."

She continued,

The vast majority of religious organizations support women's ability to make their own healthcare decisions for themselves and their families. The fundamentalist religious position is looking for advocacy points where they can say it's a life. I don't know when death occurs. There's a lot of really smart people trying to figure that out. On the beginning of life, I don't know when life begins.

Towards the end of the interview, O'Neill noted how Catholic bishops have been absent from life issues.

I do know that a vasectomy, a reproductive health issue for men, is a sin, just as much as abortion and birth control are. But you don't see Catholic bishops going up and down the halls of Congress trying to criminalize, stigmatize, regulate and put restrictions on vasectomies the way they demand that sort of thing for women. So they are discriminating against women and our access to reproductive healthcare.

O'Neill has been a top advocate for abortion, opposing any legal regulation of the abortion industry and almost single-handedly authoring the narrative that abortion is health care. In 2014, she wrote a prominent article for Huffington Post declaring that abortion is "essential health care that saves lives." In a follow-up article in The Blaze, Darrell Cheney roundly rejected her arguments.

Have a news tip? Submit news to our tip line.

We rely on you to support our news reporting. Please donate today.