On the hypocrisy of an ostensibly "pro-life" platform

[MarkD]

I find it interesting that I agree so much with the title of this thread, while also disagreeing completely with everything that the creator of the thread says in his OP.

What I think is hypocritical about the pro-life movement is that the vast majority of pro-lifers, and certainly all of the legislation that gets passed out of conservative states, always emphasize that the only evil people associated with abortion are the abortion providers, and not the women who ask to get an abortion. If you truly think "abortion is murder," then you would want to prosecute every person who participates in the conspiracy to perform abortions, including the women who walk into clinics and ask to get an abortion. But no, most of the "pro-lifers" treat the abortion providers as if they are the ones who always coax and entice pregnant women into getting abortions that they don't really want. The pregnant women are completely innocent, even when pregnant women proactively walk into clinics that perform abortions and proactively ask to get an abortion.

Imagine a woman who has recently given birth and who subsequently decides that she doesn't want the child, doesn't want to give it up for adoption, and asks her doctor to kill the baby, making it look like natural causes. Suppose the doctor goes ahead and does so for a price. Of course the criminal justice system would not hesitate to prosecute BOTH the doctor AND the mother if a coroner figures out that it was murder. I assume every "pro-lifer" would be fully supportive of prosecuting the mother in addition to prosecuting the doctor, because the two of them engaged in a conspiracy to commit a crime. But when it comes to the "killing" of "the pre-born," then there is a double standard about prosecuting mothers. Obviously, "the pre-born" are not truly equal to children who have been born.

I think there are a minority of pro-lifers who do believe in prosecuting the women who asked to get an abortion, but those are never the ones who write the "pro-life" legislation that passes from conservative state legislatures.

[Kingpoleon]

I find it interesting that I agree so much with the title of this thread, while also disagreeing completely with everything that the creator of the thread says in his OP.

What I think is hypocritical about the pro-life movement is that the vast majority of pro-lifers, and certainly all of the legislation that gets passed out of conservative states, always emphasize that the only evil people associated with abortion are the abortion providers, and not the women who ask to get an abortion. If you truly think "abortion is murder," then you would want to prosecute every person who participates in the conspiracy to perform abortions, including the women who walk into clinics and ask to get an abortion. But no, most of the "pro-lifers" treat the abortion providers as if they are the ones who always coax and entice pregnant women into getting abortions that they don't really want. The pregnant women are completely innocent, even when pregnant women proactively walk into clinics that perform abortions and proactively ask to get an abortion.

Imagine a woman who has recently given birth and who subsequently decides that she doesn't want the child, doesn't want to give it up for adoption, and asks her doctor to kill the baby, making it look like natural causes. Suppose the doctor goes ahead and does so for a price. Of course the criminal justice system would not hesitate to prosecute BOTH the doctor AND the mother if a coroner figures out that it was murder. I assume every "pro-lifer" would be fully supportive of prosecuting the mother in addition to prosecuting the doctor, because the two of them engaged in a conspiracy to commit a crime. But when it comes to the "killing" of "the pre-born," then there is a double standard about prosecuting mothers. Obviously, "the pre-born" are not truly equal to children who have been born.

I think there are a minority of pro-lifers who do believe in prosecuting the women who asked to get an abortion, but those are never the ones who write the "pro-life" legislation that passes from conservative state legislatures.

I don’t think it’s that unreasonable to prosecute the woman as well, but this ignores that abortionists function as contract killers of a sort. In this way, they are more liable than their contractor is.

[It’s so Joever]

Because pro-choice people do not see embryos and foetuses as “life” in the same way as born humans are. Now you can argue about whether this is a mistaken belief, but it does at least have internal logical consistency. On the other hand, thinking that foetuses have more of a right to life than fully grown humans is just absurd.

To the contrary. It is now almost a universal moral law that lesser intelligence and lesser development among humans makes crimes worse - see child rape and infanticide. I do argue that killing a fetus is (probably) worse than killing an adult, because the fetus, like a newborn, has the maximum potential for life.

Agreed, some of the logic here could be used to justify killing disabled kids sadly.

[Kingpoleon]

Agreed, some of the logic here could be used to justify killing disabled kids sadly.

Not only could it be used for such purposes - it is. The two biggest bioethicists in the world are Peter Singer and Jacob Appel, and both have argued that the state should “put down” disabled newborns with parental consent. This, they assert to their critics, is the only logical conclusion of being pro choice.