Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: nyu notesfiles V1.1 4/1/84; site csd2.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!csd2!lambe From: lambe@csd2.UUCP Newsgroups: net.abortion Subject: A Question Message-ID: <54600001@csd2.UUCP> Date: Sat, 20-Oct-84 15:00:00 EDT Article-I.D.: csd2.54600001 Posted: Sat Oct 20 15:00:00 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 22-Oct-84 19:01:18 EDT Organization: New York University Lines: 34 Nf-ID: #N:csd2:54600001:000:1307 Nf-From: csd2!lambe Oct 20 15:00:00 1984 [] A few weeks ago, I read about a speech made by Mario Cuomo in which he raised an interesting question. I haven't seen any discussion of it in this group, so here goes. The question is directed at pro-life people (disclaimer: the form of the question here is all mine, and probably bears no resemblance to the way in which Cuomo put it). Suppose you succeed in having abortion made illegal. In the years before abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court, the best information is that hundreds of thousands of women had illegal abortions every year. There is no reason to think that this number would be smaller if abortion were made illegal again. What should we do about this? 1. Prosecute ~500,000 women a year for murder or manslaughter (this would seem to logically follow from at least some of the pro-life positions explained in this group). 2. Prosecute some women, or some doctors, for murder or manslaughter. 3. Close down abortion clinics whenever they are found, and prosecute the doctors operating them for some smaller violation of the law (I'm not sure, but I think this was basically the situation before abortion was legalized). 4. Leave the law largely unenforced (as for Prohibition). 5. Other (I'm interested in hearing your alternatives). Isaac Dimitrovsky