Stephen Woodworth Refuses to Answer

Stephen Woodworth is a Conservative MP from Kitchener Centre, the Canadian riding (Americans would call it a "precinct") where I live. Although we disagree politically on many issues, I had always been impressed with his integrity and seriousness.

Recently he's become famous for trying to reignite a debate about abortion in the Canadian Parliament, by introducing Motion 312.

In a recent press release, Woodworth claims he "hopes to answer even more questions" about this proposal. He says, "I am more than willing to answer any questions Canadians may have".

Yet he refuses to answer my question, which I have asked twice: were abortion outlawed again in Canada, what should be the proper legal penalty for a woman who has an abortion?

He replied, saying it was premature to ask such a question. That's just avoiding the issue.

This is, I'm afraid, typical of those who advocate stricter controls on abortion.

Another Anti-Choicer Refuses to State What the Penalty Should be for Abortion

I commented about this earlier.

Here's the bishop of Providence, RI, who wants to outlaw abortion but refuses to say what the penalty should be for a woman who has an abortion.

Our Moral Intuition Says Abortion is not the Same as Murder

This is an very interesting video that demonstrates how our moral intuition about abortion denies its equivalence to murder. Even the video's committed anti-abortion activists could not bring themselves to say that, were abortion made illegal again, women who abort their fetuses should receive a prison term commensurate with murder. Perhaps more surprisingly, most of these anti-abortion activists seemed to think there should be no penalty at all. The interviewer tries to get them to think more deeply about this contradiction, but without much success.

The lesson is that most people do not regard abortion as equivalent to murder, despite the rhetoric of the anti-abortion movement.