Donald Trump was asked a question by Chris Matthews he was not prepared to answer. Trump, having supported a woman's right to choose all of his life, was tripped up by his new-found right-to-life mantra considering a fetus the same as one would consider the murder of a fully-formed human being. The problem is the so called "Right to Life" position is rather difficult to defend. If Roe v. Wade is overturned then what should the punishment be if one disobeys the law? Who does one punish?
SCOTUS in 1973 extended the right of pregnancy termination to the woman in whose body the fetus resides. If this is overturned and abortion becomes illegal does the state punish the doctor performing the abortion, the mother having it, or the friends, partner or husband who brought the woman to it? Moreover, how much of a penalty would the "guilty" parties pay? Does the state punish her/them with a fine or imprisonment for 1 day, 1 week, 1 year or 2 or 3 or 4 or more? If a fetus is considered a "person" then should not the punishment for killing a person be death? Trump could not answer. He could not answer because he never thought about the question. When he did think about it Trump came up with the nebulous answer that there should be some punishment. When Matthews quickly pressed him who should be punished and for how long Trump grumbled out quickly "we have to figure it out but the woman, yes, she should be punished." The teen, Tanya Niemi, who asked the abortion question never knew she may have delivered a fast ball right over the plate to the candidate of the Narcissist Party for which he was unprepared and therefore, could not answer. She may have destroyed his campaign as he tried, for the first time, to walk his answer back.
Really, Donald, you believe there should be SOME punishment for the woman making this important decision? How much punishment, Chris Matthews asked, but the candidate of the Narcissist Party did not know. The Republican Party has made their social issues bed and now Donald Trump and the rest of the sad Republican group has to lie in a very uncomfortable one. To Republicans, ALL Republicans, abortion is murder and Roe v. Wade to them must be overturned. To court any other view is Republican heresy.
Please allow me to refresh memories of the glory days of illegal abortions before Roe v. Wade saved lives. In that era sex before marriage was taboo and verboten. In that era a woman who had unprotected sex lived in terror of becoming pregnant and worse that the man who made her pregnant would leave her. There were movies then where the most egregious sin was that the girl became pregnant before marriage. I take you on a trip down Scarlett Letter memory lane to Torquemada torture films like "Blue Denim" with Brandon DeWilde and Carol Lynley or "A Summer Place" with Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue where the sinners of sex before marriage were racked with guilt as to what to do when the girl became pregnant.
Abortion was illegal then except if one had money and connections one could find a doctor somewhere sometimes even in Europe who would perform it or another here who would say it was a D&C when it really was an abortion. Women who were poor and did not know those tricks or could not afford them were relegated to quack abortionists, unsterile conditions, coat hangers, future sterility and even death from poisoning or they could have a child when they could not afford one. There were even homes for unwed mothers like one in Boston called "The House of the Good Shepherd" where my mother said "bad girls went." Yes let's return to the STUPIDITY of that era when abortion was illegal.
Mores have loosened up since then. Pregnancy before marriage is not the egregious sin it once was and fathers through their DNA confessional legally bear some of the responsibility for support of their child -- unless, of course, they skip then the state (Republicans love so much--NOT) will help shoulder the burden.
NO ONE but no one is mandating one have an abortion if it is against one's belief system. It, though, is a personal decision choice and the Supreme Court said it was. If you do not want an abortion by all means do NOT have one but leave your conservative conundrums to yourself and my choice about my own body to me!
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