If Abortion becomes a Crime 

by Groff Schroeder

It is hard to think of anything more deserving of privacy than the human reproductive process. Intimate, beautiful, rewarding, personal and sometimes tragic, human sex and reproduction are among the few places where the government has yet to insert its sticky fingers. Still, a small but historically violent group of what appear to be religious fundamentalists demand that the government codify their religious beliefs by regulating the reproductive processes of the People of the United States.

Perhaps the most detailed analysis of the abortion question was performed by Carl Sagan and his wife, Ann Druyan, and can be accessed at http://www.2think.org/abortion.shtml. While the abortion debate often involves religious and scientific interpretations such as the point at which "life begins," the day-to-day legal aspects of life in a society in which certain reproductive acts are criminal are rarely considered. There are many infamous historical examples where governments have taken control of the reproduction of its citizens through the criminalization of abortion, such as the brutal Ceaucescu regime in Romania that outlawed any and all forms of abortion and birth control, and the racially selective ban in Nazi Germany.

In the United States the first ten amendments to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, creates a number of important civil rights that help to protect the accused from the government. In the context of the abortion debate and possible enforcement of anti-abortion laws, it is important to understand just what police powers would be required to enforce the criminalization of abortion.

If abortion becomes a crime, the government will be required and empowered to search for evidence to prosecute the accused. If a woman is seen in the company of a suspected abortionist, this is not proof that an abortion occurred. The only place where that evidence can be found is within the human uterus. Therefore, the only way that the police can collect evidence useful in the prosecution of alleged abortion crimes is through direct visualization of the uterine wall. This suggests the police, or their agents, will have to perform a gynecological exam on the accused in order to gather photographic evidence regarding innocence or guilt.

What level of evidence will be required for a grand jury to issue a warrant to search the human uterus? Will the accused have to have visited a known abortionist? Suddenly be no longer pregnant after a positive workplace pregnancy test? Or is the anonymous complaint of that cranky elderly lady across the street enough?

Who will perform these searches? If physicians have to search the uterus, the costs to law enforcement could be staggering. So police officers perhaps, with a special van, a speculum and a warrant.

There are many types of abortions and many misconceptions about abortion. But history does tell us this: abortion always exists no matter what its legal status. This is due in part to the fact that a woman can perform the procedure by herself in the privacy of her own home, albeit unsafely. Even if the government places cameras in every bathroom and bedroom in America, abortions will continue.

The question is not which interpretation of the beginning of life we want to enforce as law. The question is how much power do we want to give the government over the most private parts of our bodies and the most intimate aspects of our lives.

Groff Schroeder   November 2008