Roe v. Wade

Debate Moderator (DM): So, you are a Pro-Life Republican? 

Republican Candidate (RC): Yes, of course. 

DM: Do you support a jail sentence or the death penalty for a woman who has an abortion? 

RC: Of course not, that is insane.  Even Sarah Palin says as much in a much-viewed interview with Katie Couric on YouTube.

DM: Then you support the Roe v. Wade decision? 

RC: No, all Pro-Life people want to repeal Roe v. Wade. 

DM: But Roe v. Wade is the only protection from prison that a woman who wants an abortion has.  Repeal Roe and the woman will be at the mercy of her state.  Nationwide 71%-23% SUPPORT Roe v Wade, and even 52%-39% of Republicans support it.  Your states’ legislatures are not in touch with their own people.  You call yourself Pro-Life, but you believe what Pro-Choice folks believe.

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In case the above is not 100% clear, let me try to fix that.

• Roe v. Wade does not approve of abortion (any more than the repeal of Prohibition approved of alcohol). 
• Roe v. Wade does not declare abortion to be a "right."
• Roe v. Wade declares abortion to be legal – everywhere, sometimes.
• First trimester: an abortion is everywhere (in any state) legal; thus, Roe prohibits any state from criminalizing a first trimester abortion.
• Second trimester: abortions can be regulated (criminalized) by each state.
• Third trimester: abortions are a federal crime and will be answered with prison time. 

There are some "pro-abortion" people who would like abortion to be legal at any and all times and places, but that is not what Roe v. Wade stipulates.  In short, Roe v. Wade protects a woman who wants an abortion, but only in her first trimester; repeal of Roe v. Wade would end that protection, subjecting her to possible prosecution even if she obtains an abortion within 90 days of conception. 

All Pro-Life folks believe that life begins at the moment of conception, that an immortal Soul is born in that instant.  Therefore, all abortions kill a human being, an immortal Soul.

• If a human Soul is immortal, it cannot be killed, it will not cease to exist even if its physical form is "murdered" by an abortion.  If a human Soul is immortal, it will have existed for all time, it will pre-exist its own "conception."  Maybe it has been a mortal person in the past, maybe it will be a mortal person again in the future.  Maybe a non-human "person."
• Many Pro-Life folks believe that a woman who elects to have an abortion is choosing murder and that she should therefore be punished by the law for that awful choice. 
• Some of this group would exempt from legal punishment women who were victims of rape or incest, and/or women whose own lives would be at risk from carrying the pregnancy through delivery.  This could be called Situational Pro-Choice, and good people have argued the pros and cons for millions of hours, instead of mowing their lawns. 
• Other Pro-Life folks believe the same – that a woman who elects to have an abortion is choosing murder – but they stop short of wanting the law to punish the woman for her choice (cf. Sarah Palin, above).  They still call themselves Pro-Life, but they are Pro-Choice (“let us make our own decisions without the intrusion of the state and its punitive laws”) at the same time, because they do not want the law to punish the woman for choosing an abortion. 

But, and here is where things get even more interesting: many Pro-Life folks do not want to punish a woman for having an abortion, but they do want to see Roe v. Wade repealed.  But repeal of Roe would undo a woman’s protection from prosecution for having an abortion.  This group – not that small a number of Americans – need to understand what Roe v. Wade actually says; once that is done, they may or may not discard their Pro-Life label, but they will stop calling for the repeal of Roe. 

Nevertheless, despite the overwhelming majority of Americans who do not want to toss an aborting woman in jail, and who therefore support what Roe v. Wade mandates, all the energy in this battle (every year, several hundred thousand citizens descend on Washington, DC for the annual March for Life) seems to line up in the other direction.  And the Supreme Court will most likely have to rule on repeal of Roe v. Wade sometime soon. Ah, America!

One last quibble: prosecuting the doctor who performed the abortion while absolving the woman who sought the abortion is the exact same thing as prosecuting the hitman while leaving scot-free the man who hired him; it’s called hypocrisy, it is a way to have your cake and eat it too, all the while ignoring the faulty logic and a rational moral sense.