Crime and Punishment

A SYTYCB Entry

Let’s say that a just-conceived, single-celled human embryo DOES have full personhood status.

First and foremost, that means that a woman who has an abortion is guilty of unlawfully killing another human being with intent, which is the crime of murder. The circumstances of how this extremely tiny person was conceived do not change the fact that killing him or her is MURDER. And, since obtaining an abortion requires planning in advance (particularly in places that require a waiting period) that murder would also be PREMEDITATED, or first degree murder. The punishment for first degree murder in the United States is either life imprisonment or death. In 2008, a total of 825,564 abortions were reported to the CDC, equivalent to over half of the US prison population (1.5 million inmates) for the same year.

Wait, the whole idea is that if abortion were criminalized, fewer women would do it. Or at least, fewer women would ADMIT to doing it. But how would we know if a miscarriage was natural or deliberate? There are about 4.4 million confirmed pregnancies per year in the United States. More than 526,000 of these pregnancies end in miscarriage or stillbirth. Investigating each of these lost pregnancies as a potential homicide represents at least a 3,800% increase in murder investigations, an impractical burden on the criminal justice system.

The obvious solution then, is to treat all women of child-bearing age as pregnant until proven otherwise.

Want an alchoholic drink? First, you gotta pee on a stick.

Are you a smoker? Better quit; not for your own health, though, think of the potential embryo.

Need medicine for depression or cancer? Sorry, no, you might get pregnant during treatment.

Do you work on a farm, in an operating room, at a dental office, or in a laboratory? You’d better find another job as these places of employment all carry a higher risk of miscarriage.

Are you trying to get pregnant through in vitro fertilization? Consider using adopted embryos or be prepared to be the next Octomom.

Do you use any form of birth control that could, maybe, just possibly, might prevent a fertilized embryo from implanting in the uterine wall? Don’t worry, involuntary manslaughter only carries a prison sentence of a couple years in most states.

What if you had to have an abortion because a pregnancy became life-threatening? You could try to prove that an abortion was necessary to prevent a greater harm (i.e. your own death), but you would also have to prove that you did not create the dangerous situation in the first place. So, lucky you, there are still exceptions for rape and the health of the mother. Er, that is, ONE exception for the combination of rape AND the health of the mother.