IIRC I once saw a youtube video in which a journalist or filmmaker or whoever interviewed people picketing against a clinic of some kind. Many had never even considered what punishments there should be for doctors or women. One woman’s gut response to the question was to propose making abortion a special illegal category of murder without imposing any legal penalties, others had different initial responses but a great many hadn’t considered the question at all.
Interesting—I just watched the series Battlestar Galactica which has an issue on abortion, and it does the same kind of sidestep. The president decides to ban it on the (questionable[1]) grounds of need to repopulate the fleet, but in her speech announcing it only says that mother or medical practition would be subject to “criminal penalties” and nothing more specific.
Edit: I know, I know, “fictional evidence”. But it’s interesting in that it seems the writers must have had a hard time thinking up what penalties the president would find appropriate.
[1] I say “questionable” because can I think of about a thousand better policies to promote population growth than using “the stick” against women who don’t want the child they’re pregnant with.
Interesting—I just watched the series Battlestar Galactica which has an issue on abortion, and it does the same kind of sidestep. The president decides to ban it on the (questionable[1]) grounds of need to repopulate the fleet, but in her speech announcing it only says that mother or medical practition would be subject to “criminal penalties” and nothing more specific.
Edit: I know, I know, “fictional evidence”. But it’s interesting in that it seems the writers must have had a hard time thinking up what penalties the president would find appropriate.
[1] I say “questionable” because can I think of about a thousand better policies to promote population growth than using “the stick” against women who don’t want the child they’re pregnant with.