​When the Dog Catches the Car

The GOP position on abortion is like dogs chasing cars.  They can’t resist, and they can’t ever catch them, but what would they do if they did? 
How would they act if they could actually outlaw abortion, what would happen?  Here is what it looks like to me.

Would Plan B pills be outlawed?  Almost certainly.  Would that be effective?  Yes, of course.  Just kidding.  Once outlawed, Plan B pills would be directly marketed to schoolgirls by an amazingly well organized network of criminals, the same people who are so effective now at marketing drugs to children in every city and hamlet.  Every teenager would have a stash of them, resulting in more teenage sex, not less.

Would a large number of people start offering illicit abortion services?  Yes, without a doubt.  Any EMT or nurse could do them.  But never fear, the same government bodies which are so effective at stamping out prostitution and drug use would create huge expensive task forces to find and prosecute them.  However, like all other government programs, those working in them would soon realize that if they really found ways to stop abortion, their high paying jobs would end.

Would mandatory pregnancy testing be implemented in high schools?  With Plan B and illicit abortion providers everywhere, it would have to be.   Would these testing programs result in mistakes and false positives?  Yes, lots of them, with the accompanying disastrous damages to innocent lives.

Would doctors be required to report all pregnancies to a government agency so the unborn child could be properly protected?  Obviously yes, the same people who had a large enough majority to outlaw abortion would not let this loophole go unblocked.   Would this government agency screw up almost constantly?  Would it be corrupt?  What do you think?

Would pregnancy self-tests be outlawed?  They would have to be.  Potentially pregnant women would have to be forced into the medical system so their pregnancies could be reported and their unborn children protected.  Even though outlawed, the tests would still be available from the same people selling Plan B, making them look like heroes.  Dangerous hormonal overdose drugs would also be marketed by these people to induce abortion.
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Would organized crime come into possession of lists of Plan B purchasers and those who had provided or undergone illicit abortions?  What do you think?  A new blackmail industry would spring into being.  Lists and videos of those buying Plan B, those providing and having abortions, and large numbers of totally innocent women, would be sold like lists of stolen credit card numbers are now. 

Prosecutors would be selectively fed information to keep the blackmail going.  Hugely expensive government stings would be run, complete with swat team no knock raids, many on wrong addresses.  Innocent pets would be shot as they barked and growled at the helmeted and body armored intruders.  The worst of the blackmailers would be given immunity as they helped in the prosecution of thousands of women and a few token criminals.

How would miscarriages be handled?  What would women be forced to do to prove that it was an innocent unintended event?  I don’t even want to think about it.

How many millions of prison cells would be needed to lock up all the girls and women caught up in the new War on Abortion?  Would there be mandatory minimum sentences like in the Drug War?  Probably.  How else to prevent judges from taking pity on those before them and issuing large numbers of suspended sentences?

Would there be any limit to tax money spent on counselors and support for pregnant schoolgirls?  Would teenage pregnancy become another untouchable entitlement?

The outlaw-abortion faction is in total denial of what would actually happen if it got its way.

What would happen if our pro-lifers realized that this issue only serves to divide us.  They don’t have to give up their pro-life beliefs, but being pro-life and demanding that abortion be outlawed are not the same.

On a larger societal level, if the danger of what government would do if abortion were outlawed went away, it is likely that abortion would suddenly be seen as immoral by a large majority.  Private support and adoption services would experience explosive growth.  Millions of unwanted children would have life and good homes.

The result would be far fewer abortions, and a more moral and self-reliant society.  It can happen.  Being pro-life and wanting to outlaw abortion are not the same.  It is time to think about what would happen if the dog actually caught the car. The cure will be much worse than the disease.

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