MOLLY'S TWENTY QUESTIONS FOR THE "ABORTION IS MURDER" CROWD raise an important issue that doesn't get discussed as much as it should: If fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses are to be defined as persons in law, with all the civil and legal rights that people have in our society, then you can't just ban all abortions and consider the matter ended. There has to be enforcement. If abortion is murder, then those who commit, or aid in the commission of, or know but keep silent about the commission of such acts of murder must face the same charges and penalties as would anyone who murdered a human being already born. That means arrest, imprisonment, a criminal investigation, a trial, rules of evidence. It means legal definitions of feticide, according to intent and premeditation, just as with any other homicide. Did the woman plan to murder her baby, or was it a crime of opportunity? Did she understand what she was doing, or can she plead insanity? Is it simple or aggravated manslaughter? Is it accidental homicide? Is it first-degree murder or second-degree?

And what about miscarriages? They would have to be criminally investigated, too, to determine if they were actually disguised murders. If a pregnant woman, walking her dog, say, tripped over a pothole in the street and fell down hard, and had a miscarriage as a result, that could be manslaughter. Even if she were deemed to be entirely innocent of responsibility for the fetus's death (as, for example, when a small child darts into the street right in front of a car driving below or at the speed limit and is killed because the driver can't stop in time), there would still have to be some kind of criminal investigation.

Are pro-lifers who believe abortion is murder prepared to put every woman who has a miscarriage or who is suspected of miscarrying (as when a woman has an abnormally heavy menstrual period, which could indicate that a very early miscarriage has occurred) through legal proceedings and possibly a criminal investigation?

If not, then they are implicitly agreeing that a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus is not a full and complete and separate human being, with the same legal rights as any other human being.