Talking Points today reports that Presidential Nominee Gov. Scott Walker has said he would pass a 20-week abortion ban without an exception for rape and incest. “In this case, again, it’s an unborn life, it’s an unborn child and that’s why we feel strongly about it,” Walker said. “I’m prepared to sign it either way that they send it to us.” I have elsewhere explained why I think 20-week bans, premised on fetal pain, are misguided and constitutionally dubious.
But I am an equally opportunity, intellectual, so here I want to defend Scott Walker. As I note in my recently published paper “Are All Abortions Equal? Should There Be Exceptions to the Criminalization of Abortion for Rape and Incest?” in the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics those who are pro-life have compelling reasons not to recognize an exception for rape and incest. Indeed, it is Pro-Life views that make exceptions for these two kinds of abortions that are in need of justification. The paper also explains some fears from the Pro-Choice perspective about attacking the failure to recognize these exceptions with a vengeance, given the view of women’s sexuality and manichean madonna/whore dyad such an approach expresses. Here is the abstract:
There was a moment in the 2012 campaign, when Mitt Romney attempted to “pivot” to the center and get away from the statements of those like Todd Akin who made comments about how in cases of “legitimate rape,” the victims’ bodies “have ways to try and shut that whole thing down.” The way Romney did his pivot was to make clear that while he was against abortion, he would, of course, make an exception for women who had been raped or whose pregnancy was the result of incest. This has become something of a moderate orthodoxy among those who oppose abortion.
Abortion should be criminalized, yes, but with these exceptions carved out. Read More
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