A major pro-life organization claims that criminalizing women is not a generally held objective among pro-lifers in response to a pro-abortion advertisement that shows a woman being detained in front of her family for getting an abortion.
According to Katie Glenn, state policy director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, “punishing mothers is not, and never has been, a mainstream pro-life viewpoint.”
“We want to empower women, aid them, and provide them with better choices. Criminalizing them is not, in our opinion, justice.
Glenn’s comments are in reaction to a new commercial by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-California), which depicts a lady being arrested for getting an abortion in front of her husband and kids.
The following statement was included in Swalwell’s tweet of the video: “MAGA Republicans want women imprisoned for getting an abortion. This is how that seems.
In order to “stop Republicans from criminalizing abortion worldwide,” the commercial demands support for Democrats in the midterm elections.
Swalwell represents the 15th congressional district of California, which covers a section of the East Bay counties of Alameda and Contra Costa.
While politicians in places like Louisiana have recently proposed measures that may result in criminal charges and jail time for women who have abortions, many pro-life advocates have opposed such legislative initiatives. No pro-life legislation that has been passed into law in American states makes it a crime for women to have abortions.
We have no reason to think that the way the laws are now drafted will change since that is how they have been created, Glenn added.
We’ve made it plain where we stand on this subject as recently as this year, and the politicians we deal with have done the same, she said.
Glenn pointed out that earlier this year, more than 70 pro-life leaders asked in a joint letter that state legislatures refrain from punishing or criminalizing women who seek abortions. Among these pro-life activists was the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee.
Glenn said that rather than focusing on the mother, rules on abortion should instead target those who perform the surgery or provide the medications, as well as those who make money from the abortions. None of the states that outright prohibit abortion specifically impose penalties on expectant women.
O. Carter Snead, a legal expert, recently said in the Economist that “since 1922, there has never been a recorded example in America of a woman being arrested for obtaining an abortion. Only one woman has ever been found guilty of illegally managing her own abortion, and that conviction was overturned on appeal.
There have been other high-profile examples in recent months when pro-life activists have been detained at their homes in a similar fashion, according to several observers who commented on Swalwell’s advertisement. Notably, Mark Houck, a Catholic father of seven, was detained last month during an FBI raid at his house in the early morning.
At the time, Laura Echevarria, a representative for the pro-life organization National Right to Life, which organized the statement from pro-life leaders denouncing sanctions for mothers, told CNA that the letter was intended as a response, in part, to rhetoric from pro-abortion campaigners.
The May 12 letter to state legislators states, “We say unambiguously that any bill trying to penalize or punish women is not pro-life and we stand strongly opposed to such measures.”
The letter, which was released prior to Roe v. Wade being overturned, takes care to note that every abortion results in two victims: the woman and her unborn child.
The letter states, “The woman who aborts her kid is also Roe’s victim.” “She is the victim of a cruel enterprise designed to end life; an industry that professes to support “women’s health,” but ignores the fact that a great number of American women experience terrible physical and psychological harm as a result of abortion.”
“Women are victims of abortion and deserve our sympathy and support as well as easy access to counseling and social assistance in the days, weeks, months, and years after an abortion,” the letter continues in bold language.
The Catholic Church emphasizes the significance of forgiveness and compassion for the women who have had abortions while still denouncing abortion as a serious sin. Both mothers and unborn children are endowed with intrinsic value and dignity as human beings.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The Church does not… aim to limit the scope of compassion,” but rather “makes evident the seriousness of the crime committed, the irreparable damage done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole community.”