More like Lie Site
This Life Site News article I linked to yesterday continues to get comments (more than a hundred now) and most of them express vehement opposition to the article’s thesis that the anti-abortion movement is not interested in prosecuting women. It appears that plenty of loyal readers of the site very much want to punish women and are offended by the suggestion that they don’t.
Here’s one comment, among the many, from an irate rank-and-file anti-choicer who bristles at the notion of letting women who murder their unborn children (in her opinion) escape from criminal liability:
All these many years I have considered myself pro-life, only now to be told by professional pro-lifers that I am most definitely not. How disappointing…
I’m sure somewhere in 126 comments it has already been said, but I do not understand this view that all women seeking abortion are ‘victims’. As a woman, I find this highly insulting. Certainly some women are coerced and threatened into procuring abortion, especially very young women and this must be taken into account, (and punish the one guilty of coercing her to the fullest extent!) but far too many women merely use abortion as birth control, many of them guilty of multiple abortions. I reject the claim that these women bear no responsibility for the murder of their own offspring. Factor in the advent of ultrasound and internet and it is even hard to give the benefit of the doubt that they are truly ignorant of the life growing within them not being merely a ‘clump of cells’. (The main reason PP hates ultrasound requirements and informed consent laws) Even Dorito’s commercials erode the chance of ignorance! They almost certainly know that it is a human life that they are taking, or are willfully ignorant.
If abortion is ever re-criminalized, which is the condition under which Trump made his assertions, then that will be further reason to expect a woman to look into the legality and reason behind the law, thus further eroding the chance that she is ignorant. Of course, ignorance isn’t typically an excuse accepted for breaking laws, and any woman who willingly procures abortion under these circumstances should most definitely be prosecuted and punished just as we do to women who hire hitmen to take out their exes or competition. Otherwise, there is no equality under the law. And if the father is in any way helping to provide the abortion even by driving her to the clinic and dropping her off, prosecute him too, as an accessory.
We have tried the loving and education route. It has worked to a point, and great progress has been made, but there comes a time when the information is out there and it is being rejected. Again, with the exception of young girls, we are at that point. Women know it isn’t a ‘clump of cells’ and this is why so many are in need of counseling. They know what they have done. I wonder how many of them wish it had been more difficult to procure their abortions. How many would not be in need of counseling now? I would never want to see them prosecuted, and sincerely hope they find peace and reconciliation, but going forward if re-criminalized…yes, women need to be held accountable.
And no, I am not a Trump supporter, though I would have been more inclined to be willing to vote for him if he hadn’t backed down on this. So on the view that he probably isn’t really pro-life, we agree, though that was obvious before he backed down based on the stupid ‘pro-life with exceptions’ stance. Ugh, I hate that, as if a child conceived in rape or with disabilities is less human. Hmmm…now that’s all said, I still think I am pro-life!
This woman was no internet troll. She is a real anti-abortion activist offering a lengthy and obviously carefully thought out rebuttal to the article. Here’s Steve Jalsevac, a writer for Life Site and moderator of the comments section, in response to that:
There is not the slightest chance that abortion will be re-criminalized in the near future and far less chance that any such legislation, if passed will include punishing the women who have abortions.
Almost all abortions can be stopped by criminalizing abortionists and those who work with them, by stopping all funding, by stopping all funding of Planned Parenthood and many other abortion promoting organizations that receive tons of money from all levels of government, stopping all government programs that either promote or give a positive perspective on abortion, and on and on.
There is so very much that can de done that will have a huge impact but emphasizing punishing the women will remove any public support that we might get for any of those other measures. This is all about strategy and facing the reality that many women who have had abortions are not as culpable as we might think, given the intense support and promotion for abortion that exists in our culture today and the cultural and other pressures that they get from many people to abort so-called unwanted pregnancies.
Virtually every word of that is bullshit, of course, except for the part where he admits it’s “all about strategy”. It is now a fact that abortion restrictions lead to prosecuting women, because it is already happening in red states, even when the law was meant to exclude women from that. And since illegal abortions can now be accomplished by women procuring pills from the internet or other sources, there won’t be many “abortionists” to go after. There is simply no way that anti-choice zealots are going to sit back and allow an abortion pill black market to flourish and not do anything about it. But as Jalsevac admits, that would be difficult to sell to the public.