By Tim Peacock | 27 September 2016
Peacock Panache
Abolish Abortion Florida – a Christian-run political group aimed at ending legal abortion in the United States – wants women who obtain abortions to be punished. That is, they believe any woman who obtains an abortion should receive the death penalty.
The push to kill women for exercising control and choice over their bodies follows similar (yet less deadly) calls earlier this year by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump to punish women for abortion. His campaign’s newest advisor wants to ban abortion in all forms – even in cases of rape, incest, and when necessary to save the woman’s life.
Based on the GOP’s focus on abortion this election it should come as no surprise the next logical step for Christian conservatives is to literally kill the women who want to choose what happens to their bodies.
Basing their reasoning in the notion that abortion is actually murder and would hold accountable not just those who perform abortion but those who obtain them, Abolish Abortion Florida is pushing for a 2018 state ballot measure (that would immediately be struck down assuming the Supreme Court isn’t stacked with Scalia-style judges) making all of those involved criminals with the possibility of being put to death.
According to a press release from the anti-choice organization:
The political committee Abolish Abortion Florida (AAFL) has launched a ballot initiative to amend the state’s constitution to punish abortion as capital murder. Under the proposed amendment, anyone who performs or procures an abortion would be charged with first degree, pre-meditated murder. “Abortion” would include any abortifacient drug or device that can kill an embryo by preventing implantation, as well as the intentional destruction of unwanted IVF embryos. The amendment would define life as beginning at fertilization rather than “conception,” and declares that “abortion deprives an innocent human being of the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
According to AAFL, the idea is not only to collect enough signatures to get the measure onto the 2018 ballot, but also to encourage legislators to begin putting forward legislation to abolish abortion instead of merely regulating it. Per AAFL: “The Supreme Court cannot make murder legal. Pro-life politicians have passed incremental regulations for decades, but it’s time to abolish abortion by recognizing it for what it is – cold-blooded murder – and prosecuting it accordingly.”
Can you see where they’re going there? Not only do they want to kill women who have abortion; they want to kill women who use contraception too. Although the majority of contraceptives are not considered abortifacient drugs, Christian conservatives confuse the science behind them up consistently arguing they all lead to the same conclusion: prevention of life.
Should Donald Trump take office, this group could have a reasonable chance of not only passing the abominable (and un-Christian) state constitutional amendment into law, but having it upheld by a Trump-selected Supreme Court stacked against women’s health advocacy.
That should frighten everyone immensely.
Reprinted with permission from the author.
Tim Peacock is the Managing Editor and founder of Peacock Panache and has worked as a civil rights advocate for over twenty years. During that time he’s worn several hats including leading on campus LGBT advocacy in the University of Missouri campus system, interning with the Colorado Civil Rights Division, and volunteering at advocacy organizations. You can learn more about him at his personal website.
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Had this law been in place, my son, who is now 20 years old, would not exist.
Since when does your FAITH-BASED BELIEF SYSTEM, aka no empirical scientific evidence of God’s existence, trump my CONSTITUTIONAL CIVIL RIGHT TO NOT BE YOUR SLAVE? A fetus is a MAYBE child for there is no guarantee that either the mother and/or the child will make it out alive. Stop thinking pregnancy and childbirth are cakewalks for neither is and women are just as much at threat for losing their life as is the fetus. Many may not be aware that maternal deaths have been rising in the US simply because these Fundamentalist Christians have been making it impossible to get even barely adequate obstetric care but it is true and has been for the past 10 years. Stop being so damn BLASPHEMOUS as to suppose your god has such poor aim that he’d blame you for what some woman somewhere does. It is also the height of hubris for you to suppose that god needs your help. IF I DO NOT OWN MY BODY WHO DOES? YOU? YOUR CHURCH? YOUR STATE? YOUR NATION? AND IF I DO NOT OWN MY OWN BODY – HOW AM I NOT A SLAVE?
Thank you for your eloquent essay.
WORD! I agree with you absolutely!!
And we are worried about Muslims with this bloodthirsty bunch? Go Lord over your own women and leave the rest of America alone.
So, these would be the same people who were marching against Sharia Law?
I find it a little unreal that every time there is a vote on this issue, the room is always fiiled with old men. Could it be possible they are trying to attone for their past mistakes?