Honorable Representatives,

At the request of Attorney Peter B. Crary, American Life League writes in favor of HB 1242.

Principle objection to the bill:  Women who have abortions should be exempted from the possibility of criminal prosecution. Those women who have had recourse to abortion are most often abandoned in their pregnancy, coerced by boyfriends, parents, friends and other family members. Following the abortion, they are then most often abandoned in their grief. Women are the second victim to abortion and prosecuting them would compound their victimization.

Response:

1.  One cultural legal factor has permitted men, boyfriends and family members to coerce women into having terminating their preborn child: decriminalized abortion. Decriminalized abortion compounds the continued victimization of women. Boyfriends, husbands, parents and "friends" would be far less likely to coerce a woman into having an abortion if they knew they could go to jail for the offense.

2.  Furthermore, where would these acquaintances coerce women to go in order to have their abortion? Abortuaries would be closed and out of business. An abortionist is far less likely to make himself available to commit this crime if he knows he can get 30 years to life for killing a preborn baby.

3.  As the law is a teacher, a woman has the enhanced support of the community to do the right thing in carrying her child to term. When it is suggested that she kill her baby through abortion, her most natural response can be, "it is illegal, and I don't want to break the law." If the pressure continues, she can actually call the police and report the person who is pressuring her to participate in a felony. In this way, society fulfills its obligation to protect the innocent and encourage virtuous behavior in its citizens.

4.  In order for the civil law to fulfill its obligation to reflect the moral law, a serious penalty should never be wholly removed from such a grave crime for any particular person.  (For the record, American Life League is in agreement with North Dakota Life League that a less severe penalty for a woman could be morally justified.  See http://www.all.org/news/030212.htm.) However, prior to Roe vs. Wade, according to all available documentation, prosecutorial discretion exercised in the United States never, ever, sought criminal penalties against the mother. As today, they were considered victims in the crime and there is no reason to suspect that they would be prosecuted as a result of HB 1242.

All four of the points above show why HB 1242 enhances the protection the state provides to women, the second victim of abortion. It also goes without saying that this bill will provide protection for the little girls and boys in the womb who are all potentially vulnerable to direct slaughter. We need to remember that these killings by abortion are going on right now, now, as you read this message. The little children are fighting, kicking and trying to escape the abortionist's vacuum aspirator as it tears their little bodies to pieces. (This can be observed on documented sonograms of abortions).

 For this reason we ask you, and indeed beg you, to do the right thing in voting in favor of HB 1242. Let's stop the abuse of women and the killing of their children.

 God Bless,

Director, Associate Relations
American Life League
1179 Courthouse Rd.
Stafford, VA  22554
www.all.org