Cowardly Hypocrites

On November 15, 2019 the Columbus Dispatch reported

Those performing an abortion in Ohio would be subject to the death penalty under a new ban proposed by “pro-life” groups and Republican legislators.

Except for a very narrow exception when the life of the woman is in danger, abortions would constitute aggravated murder under House Bill 413. Offenders “shall suffer death or be imprisoned for life,” the Ohio Revised Code says.

Margie Christie, president of the Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio and executive director of Dayton Right to Life, was asked whether abortionists should be subject to the death penalty.

“Based on circumstance—would leave that up to a courts and/or jury,” she replied via email.

That means "yes." Unless there is a mandatory minimum- and it's doubtful that the death penalty is a mandatory minimum for anything anywhere in the country- the sentencing authority (usually the judge, occasionally a jury) can order a sentence less than the maximum allowable by statute.

But abortion, many Republican politicians in Ohio believe, is an unmitigated evil. We learn

After years of incremental restrictions on abortion, two dozen Ohio lawmakers say they’re ready to outlaw the practice for good in the Buckeye State.

“The time for regulating evil and compromise is over,” said Rep. Candice Keller, a Republican from Middletown.

“The time has come to abolish abortion in its entirety and recognize that each individual has the inviolable and inalienable right to life. Only respect for life can be the foundation of a free society that supports peace, justice and integrity.”

House Bill 413 would legally recognize an unborn human as a person.

If you follow abortion politics, you know what comes next:

“Any provider performing an abortion by any method, including but not limited to medical, surgical or chemical methods, will be subject to already existing murder statutes,” the lawmakers said in a press release.

The woman would not be subject to charges. And there is a narrow exception — including a requirement to attempt to implant an ectopic pregnancy into the woman’s uterus — that would allow an abortion to save the woman’s life.

Abortion is, in the view of the forced birth crowd, a contract killing, a repugnant, wicked, and evil practice that must be abolished in its entirety. But the individual who let the contract will walk free.

That's unsurprising, and only in part because it's similar to the law enacted in May in Alabama, in which a  doctor who performs an abortion upon request from a pregnant woman  an be sentenced to up to 99 years in prison. Abortion is murder, according to these laws- except the individual most responsible for the murder is automatically exonerated.

The reason is obvious. Were the woman to be punished, support for the forced birth position would dwindle substantially.  The absence of a criminal penalty for the woman demonstrates that anti-abortion rights legislators typically are hypocrites. And cowards.

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