Well, it's about damn time someone came to a conclusion on this: if a woman gets an abortion, she should go to jail for 15 years to life, taking into consideration her circumstances. And what would those circumstances be? If she is coerced into the deed by a husband, boyfriend, or parent. (Catholic Online)

All this is in response to an article by Anna Quindlen of Newsweek called How Much Jail Time? In it, she poses the very question: if abortion were to be outlawed, it would be a crime to have one. So what would the punishment be for these women having abortions? It's a question most people haven't pondered (I'll admit, it never crossed my mind until seeing a certain video - but more on that later) because everyone is caught up in the (admittedly slightly bigger) question of whether abortion should be legal or not. Is it murder? Is there ever an allowance for it?

There's a video on YouTube that attempts to answer that question of punishment. In it, a man approaches a pro-life protest in Libertyville and asks each of the people what they think the consequences should be for a woman who has an abortion. Their answers are swell - "It's between her and God." "Counseling." But these people think that abortion is murder! What if we sentenced all murderers to counseling? Maybe we should just sterilize all the women who have abortions, so that there's no chance of them doing it again. I mean, if they don't want kids, they don't need the parts, right? Or maybe we could just make them wear a big red A on their tummies, so that the rest of society can throw things at her and forever remind her that she didn't have a baby she could afford, didn't want, etc.

Ms. Quindlen ends her column with a tough ultimatum: "But there are only two logical choices: hold women accountable for a criminal act by sending them to prison, or refuse to criminalize the act in the first place. If you can't countenance the first, you have to accept the second. You can't have it both ways."

How true. But then, Catholic Online contributor Matt Abbott decided to come up with a real answer in his op/ed column titled The abortion-seeking woman: perpetrator or victim? In it, he proposes the sentence mentioned at the beginning of this post. Now, I give kudos to the author for presenting his argument in a rational, non-bible-thumping manner; he even acknowledges that many will probably not agree with him.

He does mention that even discussing the issue is somewhat an act of futility, since "sadly, abortion is still legal." I could not disagree more. The whole muddy debacle that is the pro-choice vs. pro-life argument needs to take into account all possible outcomes of their actions. Myself, being of the pro-choice persuasion, I don't think we should go throwing women in jail because they exercised a choice and decided that every child in their lives should be wanted. However, rallying like the dickens to get the procedure outlawed (South Dakota is almost there, folks) and then to simply shrug your shoulders when asked about the repercussions is just poor planning. In addition to the punishment question, I would also like to see real solutions to the cost of prenatal care for all these women who have to keep their pregnancies viable, as well as the cost of raising a child she may have been ill-prepared to have. And who will pay for counseling if the woman is a victim of rape? Or incest? What happens to these kids?

So the argument goes way beyond the initial moral question. Economics and the legal system have places, too.