As Protestia reported on Monday, North Dakota Republicans killed a bill that would have criminalized abortion, and it’s time to remember the role that the “pro-life” establishment plays in sabotaging legislation that would actually see abortion abolished; as the writer quips, Planned Parenthood and “professing pro-life groups” found themselves in ideological harmony.
Sponsored by Rep. Lori VanWinkle, House Bill 1373 would have legally established personhood for preborn children, a change that would apply to the state’s criminal code. Translation: Playing any role in the intentional killing of a preborn child would (rightfully) be recognized as murder, and would come with criminal consequences.
(The bill would not criminalize miscarriages or accidental deaths, and had a “to save the life of the mother” exception.)
But of course, this is a major sticking point for the “pro-life” establishment.
Last year, the North Dakota GOP weighed a resolution that would identify women who procure abortions as “co-conspirators” in the murder of their child, and five national “pro-life” groups sent a letter to the state GOP to demand that its delegates abandon the resolution because they do not believe a mother should be held accountable for obtaining abortion—the ideological harmony with groups like Planned Parenthood. These five people/groups were Marjorie Dannenfelser of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life, Carol Tobias of the National Right to Life Committee, Jeanne Mancini of the March for Life, and Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America.
Of course, if abortion were criminalized, it would drastically diminish the number of abortions, and if abortions drastically diminished, how would these major “pro-life” groups fundraise millions of dollars on abolishing abortion?
If you truly want to end abortion, you have to get ugly, and honest about it. These same “pro-life” leaders and groups all assert that abortion is murder, so how isn’t the mother be complicit in the crime? Is she or is she not the one taking the abortion pills? Is she or is she not climbing into the stirrups and allowing an abortionist to dismember her living child?
Women are not victims of abortion.pic.twitter.com/7aWWOY3lkG
— Ben Zeisloft (@BenZeisloft) February 16, 2025
They profess to oppose abortion, but then fight like hell to remove any teeth from policy proposals—what kind of opposition is that?
“We want to end rape, but we don’t want the rapist punished.” “We want to end child trafficking, but we don’t want any criminal consequences for child traffickers.”
It is unprincipled, and inconsistent.
It reminds me of the time that Arizona Republicans passed a bill, which was then signed into law by a Republican governor, “banning” the “trans-ing” of children…but they made sure that no criminal charges were attached—it was a “no teeth” stunt.
If a mom pays an abortionist to rip her baby apart, she’s breaking moral law, and that moral law should be reflected in society, if we actually desire to be moral and just.
Image: Free image, Pixabay license.