New York Times columnist Ross Douthat (who also contributes film reviews for National Review) has a poignant take on the paradox of the unborn in American culture today.

An unborn child is cast in decidedly human terms ? provided the parent or parents want the child. If they don’t, it’s referred to merely as a clump of cells. That raises the specter of human life being defined by what matured humans want, rather than what actually is.

That’s to say nothing of the many couples and individuals who desperately want children but can’t have them for medical reasons. Douthat’s closing paragraph sums it up:

This is the paradox of America?s unborn. No life is so desperately sought after, so hungrily desired, so carefully nurtured. And yet no life is so legally unprotected, and so frequently destroyed.