Banning Abortion: What Should the Punishment Be?
by A discussion on the moral perspectives on punishing women who have abortions.
Today, I was aimlessly clicking stumbleupon, and I found this youtube video:
In it, the journalist asks several pro-life protesters if abortion should be legal or illegal. All of them reply that it should be illegal. He then asks what the punishment ought to be for women who have abortions. None of them say they have thought about it much and they are not prepared to give a cohesive answer.
What does this tell us?
Obviously, abortion quite a contentious issue in the United States. In fact, it may be the most contentious issue. But that’s not the message I’m getting. What I hear is that those who oppose abortion, those who call abortion murder, are not ready to prosecute women who have abortions as murders.
If abortion is really and truly a moral evil, as the religious right claims, there should be no ambiguity here. At the very least, there should be no ambiguity from people like abortion picketers. If abortion is murder, it ought to make sense to treat it like murder.
The catch is, of course, that abortion isn’t the same thing as murder. Deep down, you know that. I know that. Even these abortion protesters know that. Otherwise, why wouldn’t they feel comfortable trying women who get abortions like they would treat any other child-killer?
The truth is, although abortion is an extremely sensitive issue, it clearly does not resonate with the vast majority of the country as murder. The bottom line is that when a woman has an unwanted pregnancy, she is in a very complicated situation and she has some very difficult choices to make. No other woman or man has the right to make that choice for someone else. Especially when that other person is themselves filled with indecisiveness and moral ambiguity.
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Post CommentDenise Kawaii
On January 11, 2009 at 4:28 pm
A very sensitive issue indeed. Good topic.
CarolMarie
On January 13, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Women are secondary victims of abortion. When a young woman finds herself unexpectedly pregnant the shock can leave her feeling trapped. She “wants” an abortion, much like an animal caught in a trap “wants” to chew off his leg. This is why before abortions were made legal through-out the US, the laws did not result in prosecuting the women, but rather the doctors who profit from performing abortions. Also, from a legal perspective, most jurisdictions realize that if they prosecute the women, they will not have anyone willing to step forward and testify in prosecuting the abortionist. And if you remove the abortionist, you will do a much better job of preventing future abortions, as he is the hub of many many abortions. She might return, but not the next day and not multiple times in a single day.