Kevin’s position is at least intellectually consistent.
Way too many prolife people refuse to accept that if abortion is murder, then the “mother” is one of the murderers.
It’s much more comfortable, though not logically defensible, to make her “another victim” of the operation.
If you believe that abortion is murder, and in capital punishment for murder, then what other position can you come to?
“If you believe that abortion is murder, and in capital punishment for murder, then what other position can you come to?”
Well, one big problem with this is “ex post facto”. You can’t apply a punishment retroactively to something that wasn’t a crime at the time it was committed. Abortion may be murder, but at this time, it is not “homicide”, as far as the laws and the courts are concerned. So, we cannot go back and apply any punishment to those who have committed the act, without violating our own long-held legal traditions.
If abortion was classed as homicide today, then we could talk about applying capital punishment in the future to someone who commits the act, but that is a different matter.
Is it?
If you believe that abortion is murder, and in capital punishment for murder, then what other position can you come to?
And if capital punishment is murder? What then?
Not my view, but it does seem "intellectually consistent."
The problem today would be, even if we could bring back those statutes, we would have substantial difficulty empaneling a jury that would convict your garden variety abortionist (i.e. other than the likes of "Dr." Gosnell) since abortion has infamously and, with absolutely NO constitutional pretext. been claimed to be the right of any pregnant woman since Herod Blackmun's Roe vs. Wade decision.
Fortunately, there is an alternative. Go to civil court and obtain an injunction against the abortionist plying his grisly trade any longer. Hold him/her in contempt when he/she has been found to have violated the injunction. Repeat as necessary. He/she serves life on the installment plan. Do this often enough and consistently enough and the public mindset changes. In a few decades, criminal jury trials may be effective again. Of course, Roe vs. Wade and its evil spawn will have to be overturned first.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson famously observed in 1830: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."
"If abortion is murder then the mother is one of the murderers." True enough. OTOH, our criminal courts have always used "prosecutorial discretion" to allow the prosecutor to pick and choose those to be charged and tried and punished if convicted. Waste no tears or emotion as to the paid trained "professional" killer of the unborn who makes a fancy living turning infants into hamburger. Collect the fee, apply the curettes and suction machine and "away goes trouble, down the drain."
The State of Illinois does not provide for capital punishment (except for the babies and a few unfortunate mothers). That is true of many other states. Sentence abortionists to life (at least) in prison without possibility of parole while letting the mother go her way after testifying against Dr. Death and his staff of co-conspirators. Where do I sign up??? That's the position I come to.