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With the arrest and eventual prosecution of Scott Peterson for the murder of his wife and not-yet-born son, there is bound to be an increase in anti-abortion/right to life rhetoric. Under California law, if a pregnant woman is killed and that murder leads to the death of the fetus as well, the murderer can be charged with a double homicide.

On the surface, it seems just. How can someone kill a pregnant woman, let alone a woman who is your wife that just happens to be carrying your son? It's sick and depraved and awful, and Peterson should be made to pay as much as possible. But yet, because the baby hadn't yet been born, charging Peterson with it's murder puts this case squarely into the fight over a woman's right to choose what to do with her own body.

Abortion opponents will say if Peterson can be charged with the murder of an unborn child, then why aren't women who abort fetuses intentionally able to be charged with murder? It's the same thing, right? The end result is the same -- a fetus is dead, and not from natural causes.

Unfortunately, that's all the further pro-lifers can see. Dare I call them short-sighted? They don't see that it really is a different situation. The fact of the matter is that Laci Peterson didn't choose to terminate her pregnancy -- and so I equate Scott Peterson with the "no abortion for any reason" crowd. Why? Because both of them take away the choice of the mother. In Scott Peterson's case, Laci didn't have a choice whether to have her baby or not. He [in all likelihood] murdered her [which led to the death of the fetus]. With anti-abortion activitsts, they also want to revoke the choice over whether or not to have a child.

It's an extreme position to take, but it only seems fair. Pro-choice people have been branded murderers, whether we actually need to have an abortion or not. How dare you advocate the choice to terminate the life of a pre-sentient mass of cells that could one day develop into a human being! Murderer! And so, by reason of free association [sort of like the Pope equating divorced people with criminals], I'm going to equate Pro-Lifers with murderers. Next time I run into an anti-abortion protest outside of a Planned Parenthood or wherever, I'm just going to make my own sign and run around calling the protestors murderers. I'll make a tshirt that says "Shame on you, Pro-Lifers! You're no better than Scott Peterson!"

Yeah, I'm being a little facetious. But the fact of the matter is that this is just going to incite a lot of smug Pro-Lifers, pounding their chests, puffing up with pride, saying, "See, I told you and I was right -- abortion must be wrong if Scott Peterson is being prosecuted for murdering an unborn child! Hah!" In a lot of ways, it will remind me of the pro-war hawks who point accusingly at all us anti-this-war folks and scream, "See, look at how happy that group of Iraqis are! They love us, they love the U.S.! See how happy they are with their freedom!" And, like the pro-war hawks, the Pro-Lifers are [as usual] missing the ultimate point.

Posted by Nicole at April 19, 2003 10:56 PM | TrackBack