Just when you think comparing people you dislike to the Taliban has gone out of style, it comes back. Veteran journalist Christiane Amanpour recently appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” where she claimed the world was horrified at the United States’ pro-life gains, and compared the pro-life movement to the Taliban.
Amanpour referenced the Arizona Supreme Court decision to uphold an 1864 law protecting most preborn children from abortion as horrifying to other countries. “Well yeah, I mean look, you’ve just been talking about something freaking out Americans, which is this Arizona law from pre-Civil War, and that is being really looked at, especially in democracies where there are codified women’s rights and human rights,” she said.
She then went on to contrast Arizona with France — before admitting that most countries have not codified abortion into their constitutions.
“This was sort of a demonstration of will by, you know, a country that’s very supportive of your revolution, to show that this is universal human right and that women actually need to be treated like adults and whether it’s Afghanistan, Iran, or the United States, a bunch of grumpy old men shouldn’t be making essential decisions,” she said.
READ: Hillary Clinton likens pro-life laws to Taliban, Russian war crimes
Afghanistan is currently controlled by the Taliban, a terrorist group which has cracked down on women’s rights since the United States vacated the country, while Iran is also notable for its misogynistic policies. The two regimes have nothing in common with the pro-life movement, which has only one goal: protecting and defending all human life, from conception to natural death.
Pro-life principles are not dependent upon religion or political affiliation, and are rooted in science and the conviction that human life should be protected no matter what. Those beliefs could not be more different from the views espoused by the Taliban.
Far from respecting all human life, terrorists freely and needlessly take lives on a regular basis. Both Iran and the Taliban work to keep women from basic rights, like working, voting, even dressing in clothing of their choice. Women living under those regimes cannot move about freely, make decisions about their own lives, and even live without constant fear of abuse, rape, and murder. That kind of oppression has nothing in common with pro-life laws, which restrict only one thing: the direct and intentional killing of innocent preborn human lives.