DOUBLE MURDER: Abortion rights and the Laci Peterson case

Reason.com ^ | April 21 2003 | Sara Rimensnyder

[Senator Pardek]

"I'd like to see them string [Scott Peterson] up," Morris County, New Jersey, NOW President Mavra Stark told her county's local paper, "any way they can."

A lot of people are feeling that kind of anger following the sad and macabre news that the bodies of Laci Peterson and her infant son (apparently unborn until after her death) had washed up miles from where her husband Scott had taken a fishing trip on the day she "disappeared." That Peterson was 30 miles from the Mexican border with $10,000, bleached hair, and a new goatee when police arrested him Friday hasn't helped people look beyond the mounting circumstantial evidence. He has been charged with a double homicide murder, and the district attorney is expected to seek the death penalty.

But the NOW chapter president also voiced another, less-discussed sentiment. "There's something about this that bothers me a little bit," Stark said. "Was it born, or was it unborn? If it was unborn, then I can't see charging (Peterson) with a double-murder." She's concerned that calling the death of an unborn child a murder could assist those who seek to establish the personhood and rights of a fetus not just at eight months but much younger.

My guess is that this issue is somewhere on the minds of many abortion rights activists, whether or not they're completely sure of their position. Spreading the semantics of "partial birth abortion" has been one of abortion foes' few political/P.R. victories in recent years, leading some to worry about a slow encroachment on reproductive rights. Other abortion rights defenders, even ardent ones, get squeamish when asked to defend third-trimester abortions or even to tease out the thorny questions of personhood at eight months in the womb.

But I'd also guess that Stark's comment will be the last we'll hear on the issue from her or from any NOW representative. It doesn't take a gifted P.R. flack to see that using the Peterson case to make even a slippery slope argument about fetus rights would be politically tantamount to taking a long walk off a short pier (into a fast-moving river in Alaska). There's already a despised villain in this story, and it's not someone who's preoccupied with the sanctity of life.

[A-teamMom]

I just posted thoughts on the same topic. Why do "Pro-choice" folks distance themselves from women who want to have babies? Laci chose to have a baby and someone murdered them both.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Why do "Pro-choice" folks distance themselves from women who want to have babies?

Money. The whole thing is all about money. AND a total lack of morals.

[Lady Eileen]

.....and don't forget humans playing God....choosing who shall live and who they deem unworthy.

[A-teamMom]

Sad but true. Why can't more people recognize that?

[Brad’s Gramma]

Yep.

I actually don't even know what to say, that hasn't already been said. Like Hitler, Hussein, etal, there WILL be a day of reckoning for these people. And it's not going to be pretty.

[Brad’s Gramma]

I'd say the media is our worst enemy. They could find it out as easily as we can.

[Lady Eileen]

The elite media is to busy saving the whales.

[tuna_battle_slight_return]

"The elite media is to busy saving the whales."

And the environment.

[Brad’s Gramma]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

WHICH thread did that start on? I remember being on it, laughing my head off. Was it the Situation Room one?

[Lady Eileen]

Could you please explain the Soylent Green is People...I did a google search.....I have no clue.

[A-teamMom]

Sorry to be so sensitive - not enough sleep. I'm glad to have found Free Republic. Sometimes I feel discouraged when it seems that society has so completely lost its way.

Joe Scarborough is a breath of fresh air on cable. MSNBC must have seen the handwriting on the wall that we didn't need another angry liberal with his own soap box.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Oh my gosh! You didn't come across that way!!!!

I'm really HAPPY you consider FR your new "home".....you'll find that there's a HUGE community of pro-lifers here.

HUGE.

And welcome home.

[A-teamMom]

Thanks for the encouragement. I just had a discouraging exchange with Babel Fish on the "NOW backs away from comments by its Morris president" thread. I guess she isn't representative of the pro-lifers.

It's easy to be saddened by society's lack of respect for human life. I hope to be rejuvenated here.

[Freedom2specul8]

Ping...

Saw on fox news that they are going to discuss the possibility of a serial killer on the loose and asks "was laci a victim of a serial killer?". They mentioned the other pregnant victim found in the same bay.

[alexandria]

Considering all of the missing, unsolved, and or bodies that have shown up in the greater Stanislaus area a serial killer could be a possibility. But understand, that is with those cases that the victims family, friends, and actions up to the time of their missing are unknown. Laci's case is totally different, her associations known.

[Brad’s Gramma]

You WILL be rejuvinated here. Are you on the ping list for pro-lifers???

I'll have to go find it, if you're not. Let me know, OK?

[Devil_Anse]

Thanks, Kim! Serial killer did in Laci? I'm afraid I'm feeling skeptical. That sounds like one of Jackie's ravings.

[sonserae]

Imagine Amber...If she was dating someone capable of this, I'm sure she feared for her life and if he would do the same to her too. I wonder if that hindered her from saying everything or not.

[Yaelle]

I fail to understand how when a 25 week old baby is born so prematurely, everyone agrees that he is a baby, and doctors and nurses fight round the clock to save him, whereas some apparently feel that if a baby is 39 weeks (40 is full term) and still unborn, he should be called a fetus and have no rights at all. Besides morals, the argument lacks pure logic.