Yesterday, Olivia Murray covered a disturbing TikTok video in which a woman sings to her newborn, "I could have killed you, but I chose to let you live."  There are the obvious reasons to gag at a sentiment like that, and Olivia teases those out well.

But there's an underlying truth here that's even worse.  It's not just one leftist on TikTok singing, "I could have killed you."  Nor does it matter whether this woman is truly the mother of the baby she's holding, or the video is an insincere publicity stunt, or it's some "gotcha" set-up to make conservatives look stupid for getting all hysterical.

What's truly disturbing is that every mother in America sings this song, whether she wants to or not.

With Roe, the U.S. government gave not just pro-abortion women, but every woman the power to kill her baby.  Note the word power, not right.  There is no such thing as the right to snuff out a child, so, notwithstanding its high-minded language to the contrary, the government didn't bestow or uncover a right in this case.  Rather, it said, through the Supreme Court, If you destroy your baby before he's born, we will use the overwhelming, lethal power of the state to ensure that no one punishes you.  You will get away with it.  Here on Earth, at least.

In other words, the government installed for every woman in this country a kill button.  Individual women can resolve not to press it, but they're forbidden to uninstall it, or even to run away from it.  So it remains, beckoning to even the most stalwart mother in a time of trial, or uncertainty, or personal upheaval.  It's like a hideous combination of Chekhov's gun and "The Tell-Tale Heart."

This setup's psychological effect on women, and mothers in particular, can't be good.  Nor can the effect on the relationship between mother and child.  Children born after 1973 have grounds to torture themselves wondering whether their moms ever wanted to kill them — and not just wanted to, but seriously considered taking the government up on its "no questions asked" offer.  The less obviously pro-life the mother, the worse the angst.

The generational effects are ugly, too.  When these kids grow up and have kids of their own, what comes next if they have pro-abortion parents?  You're fawning over my beautiful new baby now, but would you have helped me murder him if I'd wanted you to?  (Or worse, if my wife had wanted you to?)  What about the next child?  Will he be welcomed, too, or might the pressure start coming down to push that kill button?

In short, what better way to sow hatred and suspicion between parents and children — to abolish the family — than America's legal abortion regime?

The old parental cliché "I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it" once had a sort of humorous heft, because of course the mother couldn't really "take you out of it."  But post-Roe, the humor is gone: now, at least within the right time frame, it's literal.  Or in other words, "I could have killed you."  In chorus.

No wonder mental health is so precarious in the latest generations.

Contact the author at drew@americanthinker.com.

Image: Rachel Gleaves via Pixy.