It is one of life's great mysteries that so many liberal people are so callous when it comes to aborting fetuses. I mean, the Democratic convention last summer was almost a pro-abortion pep rally, as a variety of pro-choice speakers, including the self-proclaimed "Catholic woman" Caroline Kennedy, knelt at the altar of "reproductive rights."

Recently, another woman who calls herself a Catholic, Mary Elizabeth Williams, wrote a shocking article for Salon. Entitled "So What if Abortion Ends Life?" Williams starkly states: "I believe that life starts at conception. And it's never stopped me from being pro-choice."

In the body of the article, Williams says this about her own pregnancies: "I never wavered for a moment in the belief that I was carrying a human life inside of me."

And she continues, "Here's the complicated reality in which we live: All life is not equal. That's a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about... (A) fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She's the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always."

So now a developing fetus or viable baby ingesting in the womb is a "non-autonomous entity." Good grief!

The measure of a decent human being is how he or she treats the defenseless. The philosophy of Williams echoes past tyranny: Might makes right! What gives Williams the right to determine that her life is better than the baby she carries? Who appointed Williams the arbiter of who lives and who dies? Always, Williams? Abortion is acceptable always?

We are not talking about life endangerment or catastrophic damage to the mother here. No. What Williams believes, and she's not alone, is that a woman can execute her fetus simply because "she's the boss."

You may remember the late-term abortion doctor George Tiller. For $5,000, Tiller would drill a hole into the skull of a baby anytime up until birth. Tiller had an assistant in his Kansas clinic, Dr. Ann Kristin Neuhaus, whose assignment was to put on paper a reason for the late termination. Pretty much any reason would do, including "anxiety."