Recently, a brave man visited an anti-abortion demonstration in Libertyville, IL, and asked the protesters a simple question:
“If abortion is illegal, how should women who get an illegal abortion be punished?”
The protesters all had thoughtful and insightful answers, showcasing their knowledge of the breadth of human experience and their compassion for women who are pregnant unexpectedly (some after enduring horrifying sexual trauma).
Just kidding.
They had no idea.
The typical response was a blank, questioning stare. The gentleman behind the camera repeated his questions:
“Should abortion be legal or illegal?”
Without any hesitation, each protester answered that abortion should be illegal.
He then explained that, when something is illegal, there is usually a punishment behind it, in order to reinforce the idea that it is, in fact, a bad thing to do. The protesters were still baffled.
One woman was very sure abortion should be illegal because it is “killing a human person.” When she was asked what should happen to women who get illegal abortions, she answered:
“Just pray for them. I don’t think they have to spend time in jail or anything.”
She was pressed further, and continued to reiterate that “the life has already been taken.” She acknowledged that, yes, that’s also the case in murder, and people get punished for murdering. Finally, she argued that the woman who got the abortion “would be punished in the end.”
The thing that gets me about this video is that these people don’t seem crazy. They don’t seem like horrible monsters intent on taking rights away from women (although, unfortunately, that would be the ultimate effect of their positions). They seemed like earnest, caring folks who are doing what they think is right.
The problem is that their energy is being massively misplaced. Instead of holding up banners of pictures of dolls with their limbs ripped off in front of traffic, they could be out doing actual good. Thus far, there have been zero studies that have correlated anti-abortion protests with a decrease in abortion rates.
But guess what? There’s all sorts of info on stuff that does decrease abortion rates! Access to non-biased sex ed, access to birth control and complete health care for women, and, yes, access to legal, safe abortions.
Let’s not forget the women who got pregnant from rape: they wouldn’t need to consider whether or not to terminate their pregnancy if they hadn’t been raped in the first place. Maybe those protesters should be out there protesting rape and incest. Wouldn’t that be great? I bet they’d even have an answer to the question of how rapists should be punished.
Check out the video here.
