Story of Woman Charged With Murder for Killing Newborns Should Make Us Reexamine the Consistency of Anti-Abortion-Rights Advocates' Views

Opponents of abortion rights typically argue that abortion should be banned because it is murder; they argue that embryos and fetuses have the same moral status as a baby.  Yet at the same time, they generally disavow any desire to punish women for abortions.  (Watch anti-abortion-rights demonstrators and some of the 2008 Republican presidential candidates struggle to explain this.  See also.) 

Here's a story about a young woman who smothered both her babies immediately after they were born.  She is being charged with murder.  Do anti-abortion-rights advocates think this woman should be punished?  If so, but if women shouldn't be punished for abortions, how can abortion be the moral equivalent of this woman's actions?

I address this topic in my article, The Meaning of 'Life': Belief and Reason in the Abortion Debate.

--CEB