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To: darrellmaurina

Should the woman who presents herself for an abortion be tried as an accessory to murder?


19 posted on 03/25/2013 5:02:59 AM PDT by Notary Sojac ('Institutions will try to preserve the problems to which they are a solution.' - Clay Shirky)
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To: Notary Sojac
19 posted on 3/25/2013 7:02:59 AM by Notary Sojac: “Should the woman who presents herself for an abortion be tried as an accessory to murder?”

The short answer is that it depends on circumstances, as with any other murder.

The longer answer is that I can see situations where a plea bargain or even a grant of immunity from prosecution in return for testimony would be entirely appropriate. It's a lot easier to prosecute an abortionist with testimony from a mother who paid the abortionist to kill her child. More broadly, in the pre-Roe v. Wade environment, prosecutors usually targeted abortionists rather than the mothers on the quite legitimate grounds that abortionists were usually multiple murderers committing murder for hire, whereas women getting abortions were usually first-time offenders who viewed themselves as being in desperate straits.

An added factor is that in a fair number of cases, women getting abortions in a pre-Roe v. Wade environment were being pushed into abortions by boyfriends or married men with whom they were carrying on affairs. There are reasons why early feminists like Susan B. Anthony were strong opponents of abortion, regarding it as yet another method by which men abused women. I'd be more inclined to prosecute those men as accessories to murder than I would be to prosecute the women involved.

Laws by their nature must be impersonal. Applying the laws depends on the circumstances of each case.

21 posted on 03/25/2013 5:30:51 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
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To: Notary Sojac

>> Should the woman who presents herself for an abortion be tried as an accessory to murder?

Only if you think killing nascent human life is murder.


27 posted on 03/25/2013 6:22:14 PM PDT by Gene Eric (The Palin Doctrine.)
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