http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/15/us-southdakota-abortion-idUSTRE71E67N20110215
So the proposed bill up for debate in South Dakota would include "defending the life of an unborn child" as justifiable homicide in the state. Opponents are strongly against the bill, as they believe it paves the way for "justified" killing of abortion doctors and clinic workers. Defendants say they are protecting pregnant women from attacks against the fetus in their womb.
From what I have seen of the proposed legislation, the law would allow a woman or anyone intimately tied to that woman to murder the abortion doctor if he was to advocate for or be prepared to give an abortion. Now, I cannot think of many instances where a woman would want to kill the abortion doctor they sought out for their abortion. But the amount of emotional trauma that comes with an event like that is not any place to be allowing "justified" killing. This also opens the door for family members (or a "mistress, master, or servant") to "defend" the woman by killing the abortion doctor.
First of all, we should not be legally stigmatizing abortion. A willing woman and her partner who want to have an abortion are legally allowed to do so (Roe v. Wade decision) and no law should prevent that. While I am certainly an advocate of womens' rights, I am not advocating that we give the right of murder to anyone. This law would put abortion doctors at an increasingly high risk of attack (the ACLU is already on it) and we do not want another Dr. Tiller incident. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Tiller) Religious nutjobs will do what they want, but we should not be making that legal. Yes, the law prospectively would defend a pregnant woman for killing anyone who tried to kill her fetus. I could support that, but you have to word laws very specifically so no one can justify killing abortion doctors for their practice.
Whether you are for abortion or not, this is no way to go about stigmatizing the practice. Killing the abortion doctor just adds to the cycle of violence and hurts the family of that physician irreparably.
So the proposed bill up for debate in South Dakota would include "defending the life of an unborn child" as justifiable homicide in the state. Opponents are strongly against the bill, as they believe it paves the way for "justified" killing of abortion doctors and clinic workers. Defendants say they are protecting pregnant women from attacks against the fetus in their womb.
From what I have seen of the proposed legislation, the law would allow a woman or anyone intimately tied to that woman to murder the abortion doctor if he was to advocate for or be prepared to give an abortion. Now, I cannot think of many instances where a woman would want to kill the abortion doctor they sought out for their abortion. But the amount of emotional trauma that comes with an event like that is not any place to be allowing "justified" killing. This also opens the door for family members (or a "mistress, master, or servant") to "defend" the woman by killing the abortion doctor.
First of all, we should not be legally stigmatizing abortion. A willing woman and her partner who want to have an abortion are legally allowed to do so (Roe v. Wade decision) and no law should prevent that. While I am certainly an advocate of womens' rights, I am not advocating that we give the right of murder to anyone. This law would put abortion doctors at an increasingly high risk of attack (the ACLU is already on it) and we do not want another Dr. Tiller incident. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Tiller) Religious nutjobs will do what they want, but we should not be making that legal. Yes, the law prospectively would defend a pregnant woman for killing anyone who tried to kill her fetus. I could support that, but you have to word laws very specifically so no one can justify killing abortion doctors for their practice.
Whether you are for abortion or not, this is no way to go about stigmatizing the practice. Killing the abortion doctor just adds to the cycle of violence and hurts the family of that physician irreparably.
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