I would like to set the record straight on something that has been repeated often in the blogosphere. Some are going to be offended by this, but I’m sorry, people aren’t entitled to their own facts. Mothers have been punished for aborting their children. Though invalidated by the Supreme Court, Wisconsin Statute 940.04 covers this:
(3) Any pregnant woman who intentionally destroys the life of her unborn child or who consents to such destruction by another may be fined not more than $200 or imprisoned not more than 6 months or both
(4) Any pregnant woman who intentionally destroys the life of her unborn quick child or who consents to such destruction by another is guilty of a Class I felony.
As to the common law, women were held liable for abortion, at least those done by choice. Given the danger to women, this was not always the case. The entire article is worthy of review, but here is a short excerpt:
Myth: It is “doubtful that abortion was ever firmly established as a common-law crime, even with respect to the destruction of a quick fetus” (Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 136).
Fact: Means based this conclusion, repeated uncritically by Justice Blackmun, on a misreading of two 14th-century cases, one of which did not even involve abortion. The defendant in the second case was indicted for abortion, but not arraigned, almost certainly due to a lack of proof that the child’s death resulted from abortion rather than miscarriage. If Means had looked beyond these inconclusive cases, he could have found dozens of prosecutions for injury abortions and “ingestive” abortions (involving oral consumption of supposedly abortifacient herbs, potions, or noxious substances) in both ecclesiastical and lay courts in England in the late 15th and 16th centuries (Dellapenna, 176–183). Legal records by the end of the 16th century “indicate that both forms of abortion were capital felonies regardless of consent or (more typically) lack of consent by the woman undergoing the abortion attempt” (Dellapenna, 185).
As many are aware from prior controversies, the penalty in Nicaragua is “a woman who intentionally causes her own abortion or consents to an abortion carried out by someone else, will receive a penalty of one to two years in prison.” In Queensland, Australlia, the law is:
Section 225. Any woman who, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, whether she is or is not with child, unlawfully administers to herself any poison or other noxious thing, or uses any force of any kind, or uses any other means whatever, or permits any such thing or means to be administered or used to her, is guilty of a crime, and is liable to imprisonment for 7 years.
I add Australlia because they share a common heritage in law with our own country. I write none of this to say that excluding the mother from punishment is imprudent in the quest to abolish abortion. I write this to counter the meme that punishing the mother for abortion has never been contemplated or is some irrational exercise.
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