If abortion was illegal....

[BamaRider]

How would you punish women that had one?

Of course I am pro life, but how does a Catholic answer this, because the question is sure to come up.

 

[mapleoak]

The legal systems of a given country need to recognize the human nature of the unborn. This means that murder involving the unborn should be treated the same as murder involving anyone else.
The current procedure is innocent until proven guilty. Obviously if the defense maintains mental insanity, manslaughter, accidental death, coersion or what have you, the burden of proof shifts to the defendent, however it should still be no different from how the murder of other human beings is prosecuted.
The same penalties should apply as with murder of any other human being, assuming the current penalties for commiting murder were sufficient.

 

[vz71]

Punishment should be metered out the same way it is for any other murder.

Keep in mind, once abortion is illegal, the option is effectively removed from the table for most reasonable law abiding citizens.

Seeking and procuring an abortion at that point would require a great deal of illegal activity. The person would have to know they are in violation of the law.

In the face of the environment such a law would create, I do not believe an excuse of being emotionally distraught would fly very far. But that would be for a jury to decide.

 

[mapleoak]

Punishment should be metered out the same way it is for any other murder.

Keep in mind, once abortion is illegal, the option is effectively removed from the table for most reasonable law abiding citizens.

Seeking and procuring an abortion at that point would require a great deal of illegal activity. The person would have to know they are in violation of the law.

This is exactly why the argument that pro-choice folks like to raise about underground abortions becoming rampant makes little sense. It would require doctors willing to go out of their way to stealthily evade the law, risk their medical license and livelyhood, all to provide an illegal service. Could you imagine if one of these woman were to die at the hands of a licensed MD performing an illegal operation?

In the face of the environment such a law would create, I do not believe an excuse of being emotionally distraught would fly very far. But that would be for a jury to decide.

But, as with all charges of murder, it has to be decided on each and every case individually. I think you are correct to say that emotional instability certainly would not become the norm for the defense. After all that IS an admission of guilt nonetheless.

 

[washcfl]

But therein lies the problem: abortions would still occur, but they would not be practiced by licensed doctors in a safe and sanitary environment, meaning that not only would the child die, the mother would face infection and death as well.

 

[strngrnrth]

But therein lies the problem: abortions would still occur, but they would not be practiced by licensed doctors in a safe and sanitary environment, meaning that not only would the child die, the mother would face infection and death as well.

But she already does.
I described how I thought it should work in the thread about positions within pro-life.

 

[vz71]

But therein lies the problem: abortions would still occur, but they would not be practiced by licensed doctors in a safe and sanitary environment, meaning that not only would the child die, the mother would face infection and death as well.

The answer to that is not to keep abortion legal.

A woman so desperate that she will place her own life in jeapordy violating the law and killing her own child needs help facing the consequence of her actions. This would involve counseling, education, adoption services, and loving support.
Not assistance in some ‘out’ that ends life and does nothing else to help.

 

[1ke]

How would you punish women that had one?

The same way they were punished pre-1973 in this country: not at all. Rather, it is doctors who perform them who are punished under the law.

 

[1ke]

But therein lies the problem: abortions would still occur, but they would not be practiced by licensed doctors in a safe and sanitary environment, meaning that not only would the child die, the mother would face infection and death as well.

You are confused on several points:

(1) Women die from legal abortions.

(2 Infection was the primary cause of deaths from abortions as well as childbirth prior to the 1950s and 60s. In the 1960s the advent of reliable antibiotics brought maternal deaths down to almost zero. In the years just prior to abortion becoming legal, abortion deaths were very rare.

(3) When abortions were illegal, licensed doctors were the ones performing them, albeit quietly in their offices instead of for big bucks in an abortion mill. The “back alley” butchers are of Hollywood fabrication.

 

[mapleoak]

But therein lies the problem: abortions would still occur,

This makes as much sense as saying everything should be legal, excepting that you name a law which people do not break.

but they would not be practiced by licensed doctors in a safe and sanitary environment, meaning that not only would the child die, the mother would face infection and death as well.

The unborn child always dies, whether in a “safe” and sanitary environment or in the mythical “back alley” full of infection and death.