How is a state law banning abortion going to be enforced?

[bluestateguy]

Say the Court does end up overturning Roe vs. Wade. Put aside what you think the political implications of that would be. That is not my immediate concern here.

Opponents of abortion owe us an explanation as to how such laws will be enforced. If you support a new law, you should make an effort to tell us how that law will be enforced. A law that is not enforced, is just meaningless words on a piece of paper.

How will you enforce the law? What happens to people who violate it? Who gets punished? The doctor? The woman? Both? How about the person who gave her a ride to the clinic?

[Kagemusha]

1. d) all of the above

nt

[Geoff R. Casavant]

2. Two points

First, to answer all your questions except the one about enforcement, there will be many variations depending on the language actually used in the various statutes.

As for actual enforcement, I would not be terribly surprised if there is a lot of, let us say, selective enforcement resulting. No one will question whatever "vacations" the rich women will take, but any poor woman who visits her cousin out of state will have some explaining to do when she gets home.

[Erika]

6. Thalidomide babies. Poor women were forced to have the

deformed child while the rich women went to Europe to abort theirs.

We need abortion available in every state in the nation.

[TheDebbieDee]

11. Enforcement issues.....

Rhandi Rhodes discussed this issue on her show today. She asked, "Will there be a pregnancy registry? Will doctors be required to report all pregnant patients to a board somewhere?

Will this board follow up with each expectant mother nine months later and require her to produce the child as evidence that she has not had an abortion?

What if a woman miscarries early on in the pregnancy? Right now, it's no big legal deal, medically or legally......she may not need or even want to go to the doctor afterwards for a check-up. But if Roe VS Wade is overturned, that woman may face some sort fo criminal prosecution if she can't produce a living child nine months after being reported pregnant.

I can think of a lot of ways that well-meaning, overzealous Christians can take an issue like this and go totally amuck.

[the observationist]

3. Abortion

I don't think it is legal for the Supreme Court or any State Court to outlaw abortion. One of the anti-slavery amendments state something about a citizen at birth and this is why abortion was legalized. A person isn't a person until birth based upon an amendment to the constitution.

The right wing nut jobs would enlist many a church goers to enforce their laws. You would see more rats coming from the right than we already have. Oh, you're evil and you must pay. That is the one thing about these wackos that just kills me. They refuse to admit they make mistakes. They're all perfect.

[TayTay]

4. They would attempt to subpoena med records

This attempt has already been made by a Justice Dept that said it needed to data for some statistical reason. (Anyone here remember this in greater detail.)

If abortion becomes illegal it might just become a drug problem. There are certain abortifacients that are chemical in nature and the ingredients are fairly easy to assemble. The trade in this would mirror the current distribution system for other illegal drugs. Of course, there will be no doctor in states that outlaw abortion to make sure that it is administered correctly or to monitor the purity of the ingredients, so there will be errors that will lead to pain, suffering and possible death.

How many states have laws on the books protecting the right to abortion? I know Massachusetts does, and I think New York does, but I'm not sure.

[DBoon]

5. Women having a miscarriage would have to report it to the police

and would be subject to arrest for failing to do so, or if a reported miscarriage looked "suspicious".

[iamjoy]

7. I Think Before Roe

the procedure was banned. The woman was not prosecuted for having an abortion, the doctor who performed it was the one charged. Respectable doctors were reluctant to perform them because if anyone investigated, the doctor would be in trouble. Doctors also had to worry that their staff and patients could rat them out.

So, disreputable doctors who probably shouldn't have been practicing medicine at all did them, and not in clean, safe facilities either.

[Erika]

9. Yes, it was banned. Rich women went to Europe for

"safe" abortions. Poor women were forced to either have the child or to risk "illegal" abortions.

[Yavin4]

8. State-by-State Basis

In some states it will be completely illegal, and in other states, it will be legal. Some states will regulate the shit out of it. If a woman goes from a state where it's illegal to a state where it's legal, then she could be arrested.

State-by-state abortion laws will fracture the U.S. A Democrat or a Republican from a pro-choice will probably never win office in a state where it will be illegal, and vice versa. Poverty will skyrocket in states where it's illegal. The anti-abortion states will be overwhelmed with taking care of unwanted children, and they will demand money from the pro-choice states who will balk.

In sum, the anti-abortion states will become theocracies, and that could eventually lead to another Civil War.

[ck4829]

10. Vice Squads

[sandnsea]

12. The right's new TP on that

I just ran across an article the other day that had a new spin on illegal abortions. Abortion deaths started going way down due to penicillin and antibiotics, well before Roe (true). There weren't back alley doctors, per se, there were regular doctors who did abortions at night. That is what we would return to, safe abortions done illegally like in the good old days. Now what that would accomplish in terms of being "pro-life" is completely beyond me.

[MarsThe Cat]

13. a ride to the "clinic"...?

when it's illegal, the legal clinics are NOT going to endanger their existence by performing illegal abortions.

the ride will have to be to a free state, or to the local back-alley butcher shop.

[Walt Starr]

14. Women will be forced into baby farms

Forced pregnancy. Criminal prosecution for even discussing options. Of course, past history of abortions would mean you lose any right to keep any baby at any time.

Why else was Ashcroft going after medical records of women if not to use it against them in the new theocracy?

Second phase will be making all contraception illegal. Use of condoms will be punishable with five year mandatory minimums. Their ultimate goal is the overturnning of Griswold and that is what gave us legal contraception. Roe and Griswold are inextricably linked. One cannot exist without the other. Overturn Roe and you must overturn Griswold, and vice versa.