Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Credit Where Credit is Due

Last week, Bob admitted that if abortion was made illegal, he would endorse punishment of women who had an abortion, including imprisonment.

Wow.

I know Bob's position may sound crazy to the vast majority of people who are thoughtful and compassionate.

However, if you truly believe that "abortion is murder," then Bob's position is the only logical outcome if you want to stay consistent with our system of justice. Under the legal principle of accomplice liability, an accomplice to a crime is equally as responsible as the principal who actually commits the crime.

For example, if I were to hire a hit man to kill my wife, and the crime is successful, then both me and the hit man would be guilty of premeditated murder.

This example can be easy analogized to a physician (or other person) providing an abortion and the woman who desires the abortion. The woman is hiring the physician to perform the abortion. If abortion is murder, then the woman is a murderer. Therefore, Bob logically asserts that a woman who gets an abortion should go to jail.

One doesn't have to think too hard to realize this line of thinking has chilling consequences. In many states, the punishment for premeditated murder is death. In Michigan, the punishment is life in prison without the possibility of parole. Let's take a few examples to illustrate.

(1) A married woman gets pregnant. She and her husband are ecstatic. However, things don't go according to plan. After the ultrasound, the doctor tells the happy couple that their child has Potter Syndrome and will be either stillborn or will die shortly after birth. After much contemplation and prayer, the couple decide to get an abortion rather than endure several more heartbreaking (and pointless) months of pregnancy. In Bob's ideal world, the husband, wife, and doctor would all go to jail for the rest of their lives for aborting a child that was going to die anyway.

(2) A young girl at college in Texas has been dating a nice young man. After a while, their relationship gets more serious and the couple eventually have sex. They were typical impatient youths and they decided to risk it without birth control because he forgot. She becomes pregnant. All of a sudden, the nice young man is nowhere to be found. The girl is scared since her dad is a prominent Christian radio talk show host with a fiery temper. The fallout of her being with child out of wedlock would be devastating to her and her family. She hears of a local family practice physician who performs abortions illegally and engages her services. The physician is mother to three children. A nosy dorm mate blabs the girl's story to her dad, the local police chief. In Bob's ideal world, the doctor and the girl are executed, leaving the children of the doctor without a mom.

(3) A married woman uses birth control pills to prevent pregnancy as she wants to get her career as a biochemist started before having kids. One month, the pills didn't prevent ovulation, but rather prevented implantation of the egg in the uterus. In Bob's ideal world, the woman should be jailed forever because the 100 cell blastocyst was discharged in her monthly period.

This is the future if Bob and his ilk get their way. Completely unreasonable punishments for all abortions, no matter what the circumstances, and I didn't even get into rape or incest. I wouldn't be surprised if Bob's reaction to the death of women at the hands of back alley abortionists was simply that "justice was served."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a hard time reconciling your supposed Christian worldview with the concept of tearing a child apart limb by limb within her mother's womb.

Anonymous said...

Diana,

1) I never said I was a Christian.
2) I've seen a late-term abortion up close. There was none of the "tearing the child apart limb by limb" that you describe.
3) Do you agree with Bob that women who have abortions should be locked up for life?

Anonymous said...

My mistake, I thought you were a Christian. Either way, there are many different methods of abortion including the D&E which is literally tearing the baby apart in the womb. None of the procedures are done without pain to the child.

I do not believe that women who have abortions should be locked up. However, I do believe that it would be much better if women did not have abortions.

You may be interested to read the reports by former abortion doctors and staff. They give an eye opening testimony to this "woman's rights" issue. http://www.meehanreports.com/quit.html

Thanks for taking the time to read my comments. I hope you will approach this issue with an open mind.

Anonymous said...

There are many different methods of abortion including the D&E which is literally tearing the baby apart in the womb.

The D&E procedure represents a small percentage of abortions done in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters. Abortions done in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters represent a small percentage of all the abortions performed. Dismemberment does not occur in every 2nd/3rd trimester D&E procedures.

But don't let these facts stop you from implying that every abortion involves "tearing a child apart limb by limb".

Furthermore, it is the anti-choice crowd, including Bob, who continue to push for bans and restrictions on procedures that don't involve dismemberment.


None of the procedures are done without pain to the child.

Nonsense. "Evidence regarding the capacity for fetal pain is limited but indicates that fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester."

I do not believe that women who have abortions should be locked up.

Then you must not think that abortion is murder. Good for you. It is not murder.

I do believe that it would be much better if women did not have abortions.

Why do you believe this? Who would it be better for?

And do you honestly believe that women will not get abortions even if it was made illegal? A recent study showed that abortion rates don't change whether it is legal or not. The only thing that changes is the risk to the woman, i.e., the risk to women goes up when abortion is illegal.

You may be interested to read the reports by former abortion doctors and staff.

It turns out I wasn't that interested. You may be interested in reading about lawyers who don't like their job. I imagine some auto workers, garbage men, and investment bankers don't like their jobs either.

kdog said...

How can otherwise smart people maintain with a straight face that abortion is not murder? To terminate a pregnancy by the choice of the mother is to decide to kill your baby. Abortion is murder.. The d/e is a small percentage of abortions done in the second and third trimester. So that makes it ok? What logic is that? Evidence regarding fetal pain is limited. Those are weasely talking points by the pro murder crowd to try and dismiss the agony the baby undergoes because it is an inconvenience to the mother. Should rape be legal? After all, people will still rape even if rape is illegal. Murder is still illegal, and people murder all the time. I don't understand how a woman can get pregnant which will result in a human baby being born, have an abortion which kills the baby, and then have people like Jeff say that is not murder. I am looking for the logic there, but not finding it.

Anonymous said...

kdog,

Is all killing defined as murder? You seem to equate the two.

I'll ask again, what effect does it have on you if my wife gets an abortion? What possible difference could it make in your life?