The abortion industry needs a “pride” movement, similar to that of the immensely successful homosexualist movement, a prominent US bioethicist says. Jacob M. Appel, an author, professor at Brown University and graduate of Harvard Law, wrote on the website “Opposing Views,” that “the moment is ripe – more than ripe – for an Abortion Pride Movement.”

Appel says that “one is bombarded” in the “conservative” press with stories of women who overcome obstacles to bring to term “fetuses” with severe disabilities. “The implication,” he wrote, “is that while bearing a child when one is ready is a blessing, bearing a child when one is not prepared garners one extra moral credit in the cosmos.” This praise of women carrying difficult pregnancies to term, he submits, constitutes an “anti-abortion” pride movement.

But for those Americans who believe “that life begins after conception,” such stories are “not at all a cause for pride.” “It more is akin to deciding that the world is flat and then boasting of not falling off the edge.”

He complains that women who have abortions are “rarely encouraged to take pride in their decisions.” Calling abortion a “courageous and noble moral choice,” Appel wrote, “Women who step up to the ethical plate and have the strength to say, ‘This is the wrong time,’ or ‘This is the wrong fetus,’ should hold their heads high in the streets.”

While he admitted that “terminating a pregnancy” can be a “difficult choice,” “our society should be proud of them too.”

“Our message should not be merely toleration or resigned acquiescence, but genuine joy that someone has made a decision for their own and for the collective good.”