Trifecta, Part I
Jacob Sullum surgically analyzes the differences (of which there were few) and similarities (of which there were many) between the ban on partial-birth abortion and (another) proposed ban on assault rifles.
Another difference between the two bans is that supporters of the abortion bill are more honest than the anti-gun activists about what they're trying to accomplish. President Bush, who is expected to sign the bill soon, called it "very important legislation that will end an abhorrent practice and continue to build a culture of life in America." That "culture of life" presumably will include the recognition that D&E abortions are just as bad as D&X abortions. If killing a fetus is murder, doing it hidden from view does not make it OK.Sen. Brownback has entered the realm of abortion debate that is seldom tread upon - the contention that in order to rationalize the practice of abortion, one is not required to prove that a woman has a right to "privacy" (a word that does not appear in the Constitution) - one must merely reason that abortion cannot be regulated because the woman controls the property rights to her own womb. I find it ironic that the clause that guarantees this right ends with the phrase, "without just compensation".
During the debate over the bill, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) displayed a photograph of a 21-week-old fetus who had suffered from a birth defect that was surgically corrected in the uterus. "Is little Samuel's hand the hand of a person," he asked, "or is it the hand of a piece of property?"
As a result of this revelation, I suggest Congress pass a law declaring eminent domain (based on future income taxes) over every fetus in America, and which requires any woman unwilling to carry a child to term to accept a reasonable sum as "just compensation" for the purchase of the fetus by the federal government in lieu of an abortion. Upon delivery, the 13th Amendment would require the federal government to free the child of his indentured servitude, and since he was now a ward of the state, he could be offered for adoption or placed in appropriate foster care.
Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?
