I would take the #AlabamaAbortionBan seriously, philosophically speaking, if it involved punishment for the woman seeking the abortion (it does not). Instead, it demonizes doctors, who could face life in prison for providing abortion services.
If abortion is, indeed, murder, then why would the woman not be punished? This would be like arresting the hit man, while letting the man who hired him off scot-free. Are women not conscious actors, willfully making decisions?
Are doctors not simply following the hippocratic oath (“do no harm”) by providing abortion services? A determined woman will terminate a pregnancy by whatever means. A doctor providing an abortion allows her to accomplish this in the safest, most humane environment possible.
I don’t like abortion. I’m thankful I’ve never been involved with an abortion. That said, we have to take seriously the reality of the situation, and put ourselves in the shoes of both the woman and the physician.
And the Alabama bill should not be taken seriously as legislation either. It will not be implemented for six months, plenty of time for the Supreme Court to take up the matter. Whatever happens in the future, no legislator expects *this* bill to be enforced. It’s a gambit.
The Court will address the ban soon. If Roe were overturned, states would then determine new laws. It’s hard to imagine that one state would declare an act a felony of the vilest sorts, even though it is perfectly legal a few miles away.
Politically, I wonder if the GOP sincerely wants Roe to be overturned. The abortion issue and the obsession over “judges” is the primary means of keeping Whites (particularly Southerners) on the Republican plantation. Were that taken away, the Red coalition would be in jeopardy.
