What's Wrong with Trump's Abortion Comment?

Are all these Dudley-Do-Rights with their halo-hats really pro-lifers? I’m starting to wonder. I don’t understand the venom towards Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for his “punishment” comment about abortion.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked Trump if abortion was illegal, should mothers be punished for having an abortion. Trump replied, “The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment.” Trump later revised his comments that only abortion providers should be punished.

Trump’s challengers, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio), attacked Trump for his unenlightened view on abortion. Pro-life and pro-abortion groups quickly condemned Trump as well. They also believe a woman who has an abortion should not be punished, but rather the abortion provider.

Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, participates in a town hall Saturday, April 2, 2016, in Rothschild, Wis. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Jeanne Mancini, the president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, outlined her organization’s position in a statement:

"Being pro-life means wanting what is best for the mother and the baby. Women who choose abortion often do so in desperation and then deeply regret such a decision. No pro-lifer would ever want to punish a woman who has chosen abortion. This is against the very nature of what we are about. We invite a woman who has gone down this route to consider paths to healing, not punishment.”

They don’t want to punish a mom for killing her baby. If that’s the pro-life position, I don’t understand it.

I thought an abortion went like this.

A woman wishes to kill her unborn child. A premeditated murder plot is hatched in her mind. She must seek an assassin (doctor) to execute the hit. A contract-for-hire arrangement is reached. A mother then drives herself to a pre-determined scene of the crime and willingly participates in the act. She is clearly an accomplice to murder. Isn’t she?

I thought people who are accomplices to murder are considered criminals. Criminals are punished.

For example, on April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot. He died the next morning. The assassin, James Wilkes Booth, was pursued and killed.

On July 5, 1865, Mary Surratt and three other accomplices were hung. It was believed that the plot to kill Lincoln was hatched at Surratt’s boarding house. She became the first women executed by the government. She didn’t kill or assault anyone. She was less of an accomplice to murder than a woman who has an abortion.

Throughout U.S. history, accomplices to murder have been punished under the law. There are even cases, like Mary Surratt, where accomplices were executed.

Here are a few:

Kelly Gissendaner – Arranged to have her boyfriend kill her husband. Executed on 9/30/15.

Teresa Lewis – Contracted the murder of her husband and stepson. Executed 9/23/2010.

Gregory Lynn Summers – Contracted the murder of three family members. Executed on 10/25/2006.

These criminals did not actually kill their victims. They outsourced the killings just like a woman who has an abortion outsources her child’s murder to an abortion doctor.

If you’re pro-life, don’t you believe an abortion is the murder of a child?

Isn’t a mother who aborts her child guilty of being an accomplice to murder just like Surratt, Gissendaner, Lewis and Summers?

Here’s a short story that illustrates how bizarre this issue is:

A mother delivers a girl at 9 a.m. At 10 a.m., she realizes she made a terrible mistake. She doesn’t want or love her child. She wants her baby girl dead.

She confides to the medical staff that she wishes to kill her child. The doctors and nurses agree to inject her baby with life-ending drugs. Her baby dies.

At 10 a.m., this mother is a murderer and will be punished if the truth is told.

At 8 a.m., she could have ordered a partial birth abortion. In this scenario, she is a victim and held harmless according to many pro-life advocates. Are you kidding me?

I guess personal responsibility really is dead. It’s not my fault it’s the gun’s fault. It’s not my fault it’s the heroin dealer’s fault. It’s not my fault it’s the abortion doctor’s fault.

So what's the solution? If abortions are illegal, then women who have abortions should face criminal prosecution in the same manner that any other accomplice to murder is treated. If convicted, she should be sentenced to prison or capital punishment if that's the decision of the court.

Equal justice under the law is critical. If a mother murders her 8-month old or murders her 8-month old unborn child, why would pro-lifers believe the punishment should be any different?

The only reason would be if "the council of pro-life nobles" believe an unborn child is of less value than a child who has been born. If so, why are they pro-life again?

Maybe it's time for pro-lifers to review their rhetoric. Is a pregnant mom carrying an unborn baby or a tissue mass? That answer will determine if punishment is proper.

Tom Wurtz is a conservative writer from Kentucky. Contact Tom at tomwurtz@fuse.net.

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