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From: ark@alice.UUCP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: consistency
Message-ID: <4158@alice.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Aug-85 11:23:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: alice.4158
Posted: Fri Aug 16 11:23:40 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Aug-85 08:31:50 EDT
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 22

If a fetus has rights, then abortion is murder.

There are other, more subtle implications.  For example,
smoking or drinking during pregnancy is clearly child abuse.
So is failure to eat a balanced diet.

Surely the state has as much interest in issues like this
as it does in any other cases of child abuse.

Lest you think I am being too picky, consider the recent
events in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where a pregnant teen-ager
is being imprisoned until she gives birth because the
county thinks she might not seek proper pre-natal care
and is therefore going to make sure she gets it whether
she wants it or not.

The word `abortion' does not appear anywhere in the article
I read about this incident, nor was there any suggestion
that she intended to seek one.  She is more than eight months
pregnant at present, so one appeals judge who heard her case
said there was no point in ruling on it because she would
be released in a few weeks anyway.