Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site alice.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!alice!ark 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.