Josie Luetke:
Interim writer, Josie Luetke, Talk Turkey
The news about the potential overturn of Roe v. Wade has re-illuminated our ultimate goal of criminalizing abortion, for no human rights injustice should be legal.
The inevitable question, which already arose at our press conference preceding the National March for Life, is whose actions we want criminalized. Are we going to throw pregnant women in jail if they attempt to procure an abortion?
My answer: It’s going to vary significantly case-by-case, and the whole penal system needs to be reformed.
Most pro-lifers agree that abortionists should face criminal charges. Being responsible for ensuring no body parts—no stray arm nor leg—remain in the uterus, they know full well that the preborn are human. They can’t claim ignorance, nor that they were coerced into this choice—not when they’re making blood money off killing other people’s children.
Some pro-lifers think the mothers should get off scot-free—that they’re victims too. I wouldn’t go that far.
Our law is already nuanced (and can become even more so) when it comes to determining if someone is criminally responsible for homicide and the appropriate punishment. Many factors affect the mens rea or “guilty mind” necessary to convict someone. A lot of those who seek out abortion do so in a compromised mental state, under some degree of duress. A lot of them also genuinely don’t know that they’re killing a human being, buying the lie that “it’s just a clump of cells.” (As education improves, presumably that will change.)
Regardless, some women know they’re killing human beings and just don’t care; they even celebrate it. These women should be prosecuted.
I wouldn’t want to forget about the fathers; there should be some grounds on which to charge them if they counsel the killing of an innocent human being.
Maybe my proposal is appealing to you. Maybe not.
Part of my struggle is that I’d want to keep people out of prison.
As pro-lifers, we believe our value as human beings is inherent, that this worth cannot be lost, even if we contract some horrible disease or get in a terrible accident and lose many of the abilities we enjoy today. All of us, by virtue of being human and therefore made in the image and likeness of God, possess an inviolable dignity which entitles us to certain treatment – not to be killed, at minimum.
I suggest, too, that the implications of this dignity stretch much further – that we’re entitled to a certain standard of living conducive to human flourishing, and that we’re obligated to help others meet this standard. This understanding informs my support of the consistent life ethic – briefly, an appreciation for how the pro-life philosophy impacts other issues like poverty, war, and, yes, the treatment of criminals.
Correspondingly, our criminal justice system needs to be better oriented towards rehabilitation.
Obviously, with an abortion, a life has been taken, and there should be some retribution and deterrence in response.
However, these goals, in my mind, are secondary; no one should rot in jail to achieve them. I don’t want to imprison a woman who procures an abortion only for her to get exposed to drugs, gangs, and additional violence. Prisons themselves need to be improved, and as many former abortionists and post-abortive men and women as possible should be out on the streets, not stuck behind bars.
As the stories of former abortionists like doctors Bernard Nathanson, Anthony Levatino, and Kathi Aultman prove, even abortionists are capable of repentance.
Abortion is evil, but as Jesus said, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Innocence and guilt are relative, difficult for man to assess, and extraneous to human dignity.
Admittedly, there’s some tension here, that in wanting to criminalize the actions of some of those involved in abortion, I’d send them to a place not currently conducive to human flourishing. However, I think the urgency and severity of the human rights injustice of abortion prevails over this tension.
This nuanced answer doesn’t make for a good soundbite, especially when pro-abortion media just fear-monger about jailing women for miscarrying, and reactively, strategic, image-conscious pro-lifers choose to let women off the hook completely. Oh well.
Maybe your vision for a post-Roe (or –Morgentaler) world is different than mine. Maybe you don’t have a vision yet. That’s okay. You can still advocate against the killing of the innocent while remaining undecided about what to do with the killers. It’s something to start thinking about, though—something to start working towards. One day the answer we give to this question won’t just be hypothetical.
