Another Planned Parenthood has closed down.
Another state has banned mail-order abortion pills, and/or
they require mothers to get an ultrasound before seeking an abortion.
Another politician has issued a proclamation declaring June
“Natural Family Month” or “Nuclear Family Month.” Of course, you can’t have a
family without children, and those children matter from conception.
All of this is well and good.
And yet … abortions are rising across the country.
Earlier this year, State Rep. Tony Randolph of South Dakota
informed the state House Health and Human Services Committee about this
disturbing trend. The
Guttmacher Institute has affirmed the truth of this sad reality.
What’s the problem with these efforts?
Oklahoma State Senator Dusty Deevers reluctantly yet
necessarily pointed out that much of the piecemeal pro-life legislation passing
around the country serves as “pressure relievers” and nothing more.
These lawmakers, with their proposed statutes tinkering
around the edges of ending abortion, virtue-signal about stopping abortions. Legislators
can pass statutes to crack down on abortions, but they don’t stop all the
abortionists. They refuse to take the necessary steps to ensure that life in
the womb enjoys equal protections as life outside of the womb.
Sounds like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? Everyone deserves the
right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No one should get in the
way of or inhibit those natural rights. All lives matter, do they not?
What do Equal Protection statutes do, specifically? They
require that every party seeking an abortion be held criminally liable, including
the mother.
This proposal strikes many as harsh, but let’s put aside the
emotions and consider the facts and the law. If someone’s life is taken—aside from
reasons of self-defense or retribution for crime—the murderer should go to
jail. And yet … numerous pro-life groups oppose equal protection laws. They
oppose any criminal liability for the mother who seeks the abortion. They would
rather make it more difficult to obtain an abortion (which is not working) or
just target the doctors and bureaucrats who facilitate the abortion, which is
neither just nor effective.
Yes, the language of “prosecute the mother, too” is harsh.
But abortion is far worse. The murder of an innocent life, whether inside or
outside the womb, should outrage all of us to demand the fullest protections
possible for that life.
Thankfully, more groups are rising up to make the case for
these necessary reforms. Taking away the spin and the distractions, the
emphasize the full barbarity of abortion plus the necessity for holding all
parties accountable.
One group that I have written about previously, the Foundation
to Abolish Abortion, just celebrated its latest victory in upholding and
strengthening the Texas GOP platform, ensuring that the party demands that all
GOP lawmakers pass equal protections for all lives. My friend Tracy Shannon,
who served as Texas Director for MassResistance, was also present, and updated
me on the fight to retain the best platform to protect life.
As expected, like at previous Texas GOP conventions,
pro-life establishment groups requested that the Texas GOP delegates soften the
platform. Their advocacy stems from long-standing (unfounded) fears of turning
off prospective voters and making it harder to protect women and stop abortions.
How do the more establishment pro-life groups make their
case for such a backward proposal?
One of their repeated talking points relies on arguing that
such laws will criminalize mothers. Those arguments are fatuous and silly.
Being a mother in and of itself is not a crime. It’s a blessing. Any law that
ensures equal protections for all life ennobles the calling of motherhood (as
well as fatherhood!) When a pregnant mother seeks to kill her children through
an abortion, she is committing a crime! It’s the action, not the identity of
the person, that’s at stake. Why would any government not enact such necessary
strictures to stop the slaughtering of innocents?
These weaker Pro-life and pregnancy groups suggest that
mothers who have attempted an abortion, who then backed away from the
procedure, would face severe criminal sanctions for what they tried to do. Granted,
it’s true that in many cases, women have been coerced into seeking an abortion.
(Sadly, there are growing examples of women proudly celebrating their
abortions, too!) The pro-life establishment groups fear that stricter measures
to protect unborn children may induce the opposite effect, i.e., more mothers
will just carry out the abortion that they have attempted because they will be
charged anyway.
Let’s assess these fears.
First of all, regardless of one’s sentiments on the whole
sordid subject, attempted murder in all cases is still a crime, as it should
be. We should all demand a society—and expect these values to be honored in
community—that rigorously punishes any attempt to end an innocent person’s
life. A jurisdiction that doesn’t treat death threats seriously is a community
that will witness death on a greater scale.
Second, in cases of coercion or duress, the penalties are
reduced, but there are still penalties for taking a life. No matter what the
circumstances, every one of us should support protecting the innocent, born and
unborn.
Most importantly, though, such harsh penalties ensure that
more women will not abort their children. During the same HHS hearing mentioned
above, one of the lawmakers explained that she would support equal opportunity
legislation because one of her constituents admitted that she would have sought
an abortion when she was younger, but refused to do so because she would have
been charged with murder!
Thankfully, the arguments to soften the pro-life plank fell
on deaf ears at the Texas GOP convention this year, and the Texas GOP has
retained its commitment to the full abolition of abortion. Ben Zeisloft of the Foundation
to Abolish Abortion celebrated not only the maintenance of the equal
protections plank, but also the enhanced language:
The convention of the Republican
Party of Texas in Houston last week resulted in the strongest anti-abortion
platform and legislative priority language in party history.
The priority language contains
an explicit call to pass equal protection of the laws for preborn babies,
thereby protecting them with the same laws
against murder which already protect born people, and to close the specific loopholes in
Texas law granting women immunity for abortions. The legislative priority also
condemns IVF and commercial surrogacy as destructive practices.
There is so much one could say about the surrogacy industry,
which commodifies children and puts adult wants ahead of the needs of children.
That’s a different topic for another time.
In a similar vein, many pro-life groups are thinking about
the feelings or the outcomes of the mother, but not thinking about the
well-being of the child. Pro-life means pro-life for all, and none of us should
be distracted by misplaced sympathy or compassion when a mother perpetrates an
abortion against her child.
The whole mindset about protecting life must adapt. Do we
want to save lives or not? Do we want to virtue-signal, or do we want to
advance virtue in our country and our culture?
In the war against abortion, abolition is the only way, and
equal protection laws ensure that abortion will be prosecuted as a crime for
all parties involved.
