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THOMPSON, RUSSERT AND ABORTION.
A couple points to follow up Kate's post below:
- Looking at the transcript, Russert does deserve some credit for reading the support for the Human Life Amendment in the GOP platform. If taken seriously, the HLA would not merely ban abortion in all 50 states but make abortion first degree murder in all 50 states. And yet, this view -- not only awful on the merits but exceptionally unpopular -- is rarely mentioned. Democrats, as I suggested earlier today, deserve a lot of the blame for not emphasizing the unpopular GOP positions on the issue.
- On Thompson's comments, though, I would be less charitable than Kate. After all, it's hardly unusual for Republicans to say that women shouldn't be punished for obtaining abortions; indeed, to compound the lunacy the very platform plank that equates abortion with murder would also exempt women entirely from punishment. (The Novak column goes on to assert that no "serious antiabortion legislation ever has included criminal penalties against women who have abortions;" apparently being "serious" means treating women like children.) To take Thompson's position, I think, is not to face up to the fact that criminalization doesn't work, but is simply evidence of someone who doesn't take his alleged "pro-life" premises seriously. (Thompson never said that doctors shouldn't be punished for performing abortions.) Thompson does say something about "young women in extreme situations," which would be more defensible than a blanket exemption from legal sanctions, but he doesn't make clear what he's advocating.
--Scott Lemieux
COMMENTS (5)
"indeed, to compound the lunacy the very platform plank that equates abortion with murder would also exempt women entirely from punishment."
Well, then, we can see how serious they are about having people regard it in what they take to be the proper way. This has the marks of conservative moral philosophers all over it, more so than "treating women like children." To them, it's more like trying to force people to grow up and assume responsibility for their actions.
Because, if you truly think "X is a crime" but we're not going to punish "Y person" as if they had committed a crime (or not as fully)-- that *is* how we treat juveniles in the justice system.
I think there are other layers that further complicate this-- how many poor women really have control over their persons?, etc-- but conservative moralists tend to engage in a more abstract logic.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 8, 2007 6:54 PM
I don't understand the legal justification for punishing doctors and not the women having abortions. Does the principle of equal justice under the law allow for different punishments for the doctor and the patient?
Posted by: FS | November 8, 2007 11:04 PM
I have no doubt they eventually will justify all parties involved including women and girls. At this rate, I put nothing past them. Nothing.
Posted by: Davidson | November 9, 2007 3:28 AM
I meant to add that they'll justify punishing all involved.
Posted by: Davidson | November 9, 2007 3:29 AM
There are a few pro-lifers who actually think any zygote or fetus is fully human, and so believe that abortion is always wrong (including birth control pills and morning after pills) but they are in the minority. And for the most part, this extreme position is the only logically consistent one.
But for most pro-lifers, abortion is ok if the pregnance is the result of rape or incest. In other words, the relative guilt or innocence of the mother, not the innocence of the fetus, is the deciding factor. Of course, once they make the rape exception, they loose the moral high ground. How can abortion be murder for one set of people (brazen hussies?) yet not murder for another set (16 year-old rape victims)?
Add to this the bizarre notion that even though pro-lifers want to criminalize abortion, but not women who seek them or have them. For them, the pregnancy itself is the punishment. And throw in the utter lack of concern for actual live children and fetuses via healthcare for the needy.
I just wish that Democrats would take on this issue more directly and point out all of the hypocracies. For the most part, "pro-life" is more about punishing "bad" women than genuine concern for "the unborn".
Posted by: esaund | November 9, 2007 9:50 AM