Any casual watcher of last night's Republican debate may have come
away thinking that women don't have much at stake in this election.
After all, of the questions CNN chose, less than a third were even
from women. (Sadly even in cutting edge political forums, like the
Daily Show, that's typical. In the last year, of the 140 guests of the
Jon Stewart Show 13 have been women of which only 4 were not
actresses.) The Democrats have Hillary as a candidate this year, which
puts women front and center. For the Republicans, though, it's pretty
much a choice between graying, gray or bald white men, all of whom
seemed to nod in agreement on one breathtaking policy initiative for
women that surfaced in last night's debate: the DIY abortion.

The question from the "young lady" was: If abortion is outlawed then
who is the criminal, woman, doctor, both? This has always been the
sticky question for the anti-abortion side. Do they intend to start
locking up people for murder? Fascinatingly, Fred Thompson, National
Right to Life's endorsed candidate, said no. He suggested that some
people will be able to perform abortions at any stage of pregnancy
with no fear of prosecution: women on themselves. Thompson explained
his (and one would figure, National Right to Life's,) bold new plan
that would kick in once Roe is overturned: "The question is who get
penalized and what should be the penalty. I think it should be
fashioned along the same lines it is now. Most states have abortion
laws that outlaw abortion after viability and it [the criminal
penalty] goes to the doctor performing the abortion not the girl, the
young girl, her parents, or whoever it might be. I think that same
pattern needs to be followed." So, under this plan, a woman is free to
perform abortions on herself, possibly with the help of her parents or
"whoever it might be" as long as a physician or healthcare provider
who is actually skilled to provide safe abortion care isn't involved.
The last time the United States banned abortion – pre- Roe – doctors
faced only minimal penalties for providing safe care. Apparently
Thompson, and every GOP candidate except Giuliani appeared to agree,
that was a mistake. The crime of abortion, if (and apparently only if)
performed by a doctor, will be murder and extreme penalties will
apply. Of course, the details will have to be worked out. Electric
chair or lethal injection, that's still up for grabs. But it seems
clear that the environment post-Roe will be harsher than pre-Roe. The
clandestine network of safe abortion services that sprung up last time
might not emerge this time. The risk for physicians would be too
great. And so women who can't reach safe care will be much more likely
than women before Roe to matters into their own hands, which
apparently the Republicans don't mind.

During last night's debate, there were some anti-abortion ideas
dismissed as too preposterous. Will there be a "federal abortion
police" force? Candidate Ron Paul seemed to think that would be too
difficult. But it's not been too difficult for other "pro-lifer"
wonderlands and so it's probably not exactly off the table as a
possibility. In El Salvador, for example, they do use police. Actually
they're called "Forensic Gynecologists," and they investigate possible
crime scenes (aka: women's bodies) after a miscarriage because, of
course, once abortion is illegal every miscarriage is suspect. The
immediate past AG of Kansas, Phil Kline, attempted some version of
this; seizing abortion patients records in an attempt to find misdeeds
on the part of the physician. Given the pro-life movement's attempts
to conflate abortion and contraception, with the cooperation of
"pro-life" politicians, it's any wonder the scope the GOP has in mind.
While Governor of Massachusetts, a bill that would have made emergency
contraception (EC) more widely available came to Romney's desk. He
vetoed it because, he believes, EC is an "abortive" drug. So, would
Romney propose that doctors who dispense EC face the same criminal
penalties as those providing what is traditionally known as abortion?

In 2005, Geraldo Flores was a boyfriend of a desperate pregnant teen.
Flores' girlfriend, believing she was unable to get a legal abortion
in her state of Texas, asked him to strike her in the belly and cause
a miscarriage. He did, and succeeded. He's now serving life in prison
for doing it. Under the GOP plan, he would have to be a doctor to do
that kind of time.
--