Criminalization or abortion!?!?

**yesdachi** · 10-14-2005, 19:41

Lets imagine that in the future that the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Now individual states can make abortion a criminal offence, basically pre-meditated murder. What should the punishment for a woman who gets an abortion be? Should the doctor also be charged?

Should it be legal for a pregnant woman to go to another state or country where abortion is legal and have it done then come back to her state without a criminal investigation?

Lets try not to argue if abortion is right or wrong, we’ve been there and done that. This question is a very real one that the US may face if Roe v. Wade is ever overturned. It seems that a lot of people don’t want abortion to be legal but they also don’t want to punish a woman for having one. It can’t be both ways.

**Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe** · 10-14-2005, 20:02

Why would anyone be charged?

Person looking for abortion will just "go on vacation" in a state allowing abortion... Or Canada, or anywhere really.

OTOH, in the anti abortion states, voters will have this warm feeling they did something right... Forgetting that abortion seeker just moved somewhere else.

So it's going to be an interesting hypocrisy.
The only person who will get charged are those either too stupid to go to another place for a week, or trying to make a case and overturn the overturn.

You're in for a lot of fun.

Louis,

**Kraxis** · 10-14-2005, 20:59

Or perhaps there would be a return to the less secure 'home abortions'.

Damn, my grandmother used to tell me about those and they were to say the least scary.

**yesdachi** · 10-14-2005, 21:16

I think you guys are right that “home” and away abortions would increase but wouldn’t a “home” abortion or one in a different country still be illegal if caught? It would only be risky if others knew about the pregnancy but you couldn’t just go on vacation with an obvious bun in the oven and return without and not have someone scream murderer! Same way you couldn’t go on vacation with your toddler and return without and not be asked, “where’s your kid?”

**solypsist** · 10-14-2005, 21:19

you could expect a rise in deaths from back-alley abortions and teen mothers. not everyone can afford to cross state lines (assuming the state is even nearby). more black women would be sentenced to jailtime than white women, further disrupting social and economically unstable areas (like poor areas of the south). with the iraq war as background music, it would be the early 1970s all over again, which were pretty bad times to be an american.

**Xiahou** · 10-15-2005, 10:24

Originally Posted by solypsist

you could expect a rise in deaths from back-alley abortions and teen mothers. not everyone can afford to cross state lines (assuming the state is even nearby). more black women would be sentenced to jailtime than white women, further disrupting social and economically unstable areas (like poor areas of the south). with the iraq war as background music, it would be the early 1970s all over again, which were pretty bad times to be an american.

Would there be more abortion related deaths? Maybe. Alot more? Probably not. The often stated statistics of thousands of women dying each year from "back alley abortions" was largely a fabrication- most were performed by licensed physicians anyhow. Second, why would more black women be sentenced? From what data I've seen, close to 70% of abortions are performed on white women.

**Kraxis** · 10-14-2005, 21:23

Originally Posted by yesdachi

I think you guys are right that “home” and away abortions would increase but wouldn’t a “home” abortion or one in a different country still be illegal if caught? It would only be risky if others knew about the pregnancy but you couldn’t just go on vacation with an obvious bun in the oven and return without and not have someone scream murderer! Same way you couldn’t go on vacation with your toddler and return without and not be asked, “where’s your kid?”

Well that is a problem they are facing in Ireland, yet I don't hear about Irish girls getting prosecuted for abortion in N. Ireland or England.

I don't know about the US or individual state's laws (in case this should come to fruition), but wouldn't this be like prosecuting a man for having smoked weed in Amsterdam???

**yesdachi** · 10-14-2005, 21:36

Originally Posted by Kraxis

...but wouldn't this be like prosecuting a man for having smoked weed in Amsterdam???

Sure, except smoking weed is not murder like the pro-lifers say abortion is.

**Kanamori** · 10-14-2005, 21:37

With most law, you would be able to cross the state lines and have it available; I can't really think of any laws that forbid their citizens from doing certain things in other areas not under their jurisdiction, and I can't imagine the other jurisdiction policing their laws for them. But, abortion clinics aren't exactly common sights in places around the country; it would be more than just hopping across the border of a state.

**Navaros** · 10-15-2005, 10:05

Originally Posted by yesdachi

Lets imagine that in the future that the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Now individual states can make abortion a criminal offence, basically pre-meditated murder. What should the punishment for a woman who gets an abortion be? Should the doctor also be charged?

Punishment should be execution, or at the very least, life imprisonment with zero possibility for parole. Both for the "woman" and the "doctor" who participated in the murder of the baby. I put quotes around the words because in reality they are neither; that would require humanity first - but humans would not murder babies.

**bmolsson** · 10-15-2005, 12:37

Originally Posted by Navaros

Punishment should be execution, or at the very least, life imprisonment with zero possibility for parole. Both for the "woman" and the "doctor" who participated in the murder of the baby. I put quotes around the words because in reality they are neither; that would require humanity first - but humans would not murder babies.

Did your mother beat you as a child ??

**yesdachi** · 10-18-2005, 13:47

Lets not start arguing if abortion is right or wrong or when it is abortion and when it is murder or whatever. My original questions were…

Lets imagine that in the future that the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Now individual states can make abortion a criminal offence, basically pre-meditated murder. What should the punishment for a woman who gets an abortion be? Should the doctor also be charged?

Should it be legal for a pregnant woman to go to another state or country where abortion is legal and have it done then come back to her state without a criminal investigation?

From other abortion threads we all know where this one could go.