March 7, 2006

An Abortion Question

I'll let digby ask it:
I have a question for the innocent life crowd: how come none of the proposed laws anywhere, as far as I can tell, believe that a woman should be tried for the murder of her child if she gets an abortion? Indeed, there is no penalty in the South Dakota law for the woman at all. She isn't even charged as an accessory. Does that make sense? She could be tried for first degree murder for leaving a newborn baby to die on a church doorstep.
In another, later blog entry, he links to a video in which anti-abortion protestors are asked that same question. (Note: there must be a lot of traffic around that site - I haven't been able to see the video myself.) Digby reports that most of the protestors say they've never thought about it before.

After a bit, digby sums it all up:
So I think we need to have this discussion. Let's debate it out in the open and "air both sides" because from where I sit it's the "pro-lifers" who haven't thought this thing through. Nobody says they can't agitate against abortion and stand out there with their sickening pictures and try to dissuade women from doing it. I will defend their right to argue against abortion forever. But when they use the law to enforce their moral worldview they need to recognize that they can't have it both ways. If fetuses are human and have the same rights as the women in whom they live, then a woman who has an abortion must logically be subject to the full force of the law. It would be a premeditated act of murder no different than if she hired a hit man to kill her five year old. The law will eventually be able to make no logical moral distinction. Is everybody ready for that?
I wonder who'll be first to speak up and declare that a woman who gets an abortion should be tried for murder and a woman who plans on getting an abortion should be tried for conspiracy to commit murder. How about a woman who doesn't know she's pregnant and loses the baby due to something she did, shouldn't she be tried for negligent homicide?

And, finally, what about the woman who knows she's ovulating but chooses an evening alone with a good Candide Royale DVD instead? An evil pre-emptive contraceptive if ever there was one. With pornography to boot!

9 comments:

  1. Of course it's a foregone conclusion that all this banning abortion silliness is just to try to discourage people from deriving pleasure from sex.

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  2. Or, how about women who use abortion as a literal tool because they don't want to be inconvenienced by a child on account of her addiction to screwing?

    Yeah, that's right: So you had a night of fun, and now you’re faced with a lifetime of being inconvenienced as a parent? Healthy or not, just kill the unborn child. That’s right, just kill the unborn baby and screw some more. Is that murder, too?

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  3. Braden is right. Men must either wear condoms or forgo all sex unless they're actively trying to have a baby -- even after they are married. Otherwise they just have an "addiction to screwing."

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  4. But Braden, while I appreciate you
    furnishing the punchline to my posting (and proving my point while doing so - thanks!), I have to let you know that you didn't answer the question.

    I'll restate it in case you missed it.

    Is abortion murder? If it is, then why doesn't anyone think the woman getting the abortion should be charged with murder?

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  5. Addiction to screwing? Is this Braden moron for real? I looked at his blog-looks like one of those serial killers who hates everyone because he couldn't get a hooker to take his money. His mother must not have breast-fed him as a child

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  6. now, now, I think that all Braden is saying is a lot of us need a good spanking for so naughty.

    I agree.

    I just ask that Salma Hayek be the one who gives me mine. ;)

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  7. "being" so naughty, that is.

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  8. "Addiction to screwing? Is this Braden moron for real? I looked at his blog-looks like one of those serial killers who hates everyone because he couldn't get a hooker to take his money. His mother must not have breast-fed him as a child"

    Once again, the consistent liberal fashion of answering a question with profanity. Anon., you're totally hopeless, but I won't hold that negative aspect of your personality against you. After all, you don't know any better. To you, the truth is the enemy. With you, lies and deceit are the "truth" according to your view of the world.

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