Thought-provoking article that exposes the faulty logic of those who say abortion is murder.
"The latest in an unending series of bombs dropped by Donald Trump has kicked up some interesting rubble. He does this sometimes, as when he flat-out told a crowd of Republican debate-watchers in South Carolina that George W. Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq and that everyone knew it. To use another weapons analogy, fire off enough random rounds and you’ll eventually hit a target. And that’s what Mr. Trump did when he made his “Kinsley gaffe” — when a politician accidentally says something true — and said he’d be in favor of punishing women who get abortions.
Mr. Trump was predictably attacked by Republicans, Democrats and two major anti-abortion groups, and he later backed off to say that, well, it’s the doctors who perform abortions who should be punished. But I see this as a legitimate issue that abortion-rights opponents have been allowed to elude for, well ... forever.
It seems to me that you can’t say “abortion is murder” over and over and then act as if the person committing this murder is just another victim. If your belief is that an embryo is a human being, then I fully understand why you consider abortion murder. Any other conclusion is hard to escape. But if you’re going to say that, you can’t get around the implications. If abortion is murder, then the woman who decides to get one is guilty of premeditated murder in the first degree. It’s hard to think of a more premeditated form of murder if you put this act in that category.
You can say “it’s really the provider who’s guilty,” but the provider is simply the triggerman; the woman getting the abortion commissioned the hit, and that’s first-degree murder. If you’re going to say she was coerced or brainwashed by an evil doctor, well, in virtually all cases, that’s obvious nonsense. It’s hard to get an abortion in many places. Many states place structural obstacles in the path of a woman seeking one, including a mandate that she subject herself to various attempts to talk her out of it. It’s not as though M.D. ghouls are roaming the aisles of drugstores trolling for vulnerable teens buying home pregnancy tests to harvest their fetuses. These women are seeking out abortions. So, if abortion is murder, they are murderers. And if they are murderers, they should be arrested, tried and, if convicted, subject to a fitting penalty, which in some states may include execution.
The teen with the promising future who made a mistake and did not feel she was ready for motherhood? Thirty years.
The woman with the abusive husband who knows she’ll get beaten up if she tells him she’s pregnant and who doesn’t want to bring another child into the world with him as the father? Life behind bars, maximum security.
The mother of three in her 40s whose contraception failed. The electric chair.
Did your stomach just do a somersault? You’re not alone. Most people, regardless of their position on abortion, recoil at the notion.
Notice that Mr. Trump didn’t say he was in favor of executing women who get abortions. He didn’t say he was in favor of locking them up for life or even long jail terms. He just said he thought there should be some kind of penalty. And for that, the last two Republicans in the race against him, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, both anti-choice, criticized him.
I think that those who oppose abortion rights, especially politicians running for powerful positions, have to choose (yes, I’m pro-choice). They can’t have it both ways. Abortion can’t be murder but not treated like murder. That said, if you consider abortion murder but your mind recoils at the thought of locking up women who get one, maybe it isn’t murder. That doesn’t mean you have to be in favor of abortion rights. But it does mean you should think twice about employing the incendiary, violent and irresponsible rhetoric and reasoning that has been at the foundation of the anti-choice movement for generations. Or you risk being an insufferable hypocrite.
So, if for nothing else, Mr. Trump, thanks for pointing that out."
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion...have-to-punish-the-women/stories/201604010078
"The latest in an unending series of bombs dropped by Donald Trump has kicked up some interesting rubble. He does this sometimes, as when he flat-out told a crowd of Republican debate-watchers in South Carolina that George W. Bush lied about WMDs in Iraq and that everyone knew it. To use another weapons analogy, fire off enough random rounds and you’ll eventually hit a target. And that’s what Mr. Trump did when he made his “Kinsley gaffe” — when a politician accidentally says something true — and said he’d be in favor of punishing women who get abortions.
Mr. Trump was predictably attacked by Republicans, Democrats and two major anti-abortion groups, and he later backed off to say that, well, it’s the doctors who perform abortions who should be punished. But I see this as a legitimate issue that abortion-rights opponents have been allowed to elude for, well ... forever.
It seems to me that you can’t say “abortion is murder” over and over and then act as if the person committing this murder is just another victim. If your belief is that an embryo is a human being, then I fully understand why you consider abortion murder. Any other conclusion is hard to escape. But if you’re going to say that, you can’t get around the implications. If abortion is murder, then the woman who decides to get one is guilty of premeditated murder in the first degree. It’s hard to think of a more premeditated form of murder if you put this act in that category.
You can say “it’s really the provider who’s guilty,” but the provider is simply the triggerman; the woman getting the abortion commissioned the hit, and that’s first-degree murder. If you’re going to say she was coerced or brainwashed by an evil doctor, well, in virtually all cases, that’s obvious nonsense. It’s hard to get an abortion in many places. Many states place structural obstacles in the path of a woman seeking one, including a mandate that she subject herself to various attempts to talk her out of it. It’s not as though M.D. ghouls are roaming the aisles of drugstores trolling for vulnerable teens buying home pregnancy tests to harvest their fetuses. These women are seeking out abortions. So, if abortion is murder, they are murderers. And if they are murderers, they should be arrested, tried and, if convicted, subject to a fitting penalty, which in some states may include execution.
The teen with the promising future who made a mistake and did not feel she was ready for motherhood? Thirty years.
The woman with the abusive husband who knows she’ll get beaten up if she tells him she’s pregnant and who doesn’t want to bring another child into the world with him as the father? Life behind bars, maximum security.
The mother of three in her 40s whose contraception failed. The electric chair.
Did your stomach just do a somersault? You’re not alone. Most people, regardless of their position on abortion, recoil at the notion.
Notice that Mr. Trump didn’t say he was in favor of executing women who get abortions. He didn’t say he was in favor of locking them up for life or even long jail terms. He just said he thought there should be some kind of penalty. And for that, the last two Republicans in the race against him, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, both anti-choice, criticized him.
I think that those who oppose abortion rights, especially politicians running for powerful positions, have to choose (yes, I’m pro-choice). They can’t have it both ways. Abortion can’t be murder but not treated like murder. That said, if you consider abortion murder but your mind recoils at the thought of locking up women who get one, maybe it isn’t murder. That doesn’t mean you have to be in favor of abortion rights. But it does mean you should think twice about employing the incendiary, violent and irresponsible rhetoric and reasoning that has been at the foundation of the anti-choice movement for generations. Or you risk being an insufferable hypocrite.
So, if for nothing else, Mr. Trump, thanks for pointing that out."
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion...have-to-punish-the-women/stories/201604010078
