"I'm Pro-Life and I Need My Abortion"

UPDATED: Man tries to plow SUV into Planned Parenthood in St. Paul.

At Pharyngula, PZ Myers posted a video of anti-choice protestors who believe that abortion should be illegal, because it is "murder," the "taking of a life." Yet when they are asked what should happen to women who have an illegal abortion should these activists get their wish and abortion is outlawed, these people have no answer. (Sorry, there seems to be no embedding allowed for this video.)

One dip in the video says, "Well, pray for the woman to never have any more abortions." Others say that the abortion is "between her and her God" or "on her conscience." What is the point of outlawing something if there is no punishment for breaking the law? They still have no answer.

Are these people serious about outlawing abortion - or is that effort merely a recruiting effort by the religious right, and a "goal" that would cease to unify people were it to ever be accomplished?

Or, are they carefully guarding the secret that they do believe women should be imprisoned, or even put to death, perhaps stoned, for having an abortion which they claim, after all, is "murder"?

I stated in my comment that some of the protestors, like certain high profile anti-choice fanatics, had probably had abortions and wanted to keep it legal and available for them, and I received a reply with a link to the most astonishing article you'll ever read.

"The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion: When the Anti-Choice Choose"

Many anti-choice women are convinced that their need for abortion is unique -- not like those "other" women -- even though they have abortions for the same sorts of reasons. Anti-choice women often expect special treatment from clinic staff. Some demand an abortion immediately, wanting to skip important preliminaries such as taking a history or waiting for blood test results. Frequently, anti-abortion women will refuse counseling (such women are generally turned away or referred to an outside counselor because counseling at clinics is mandatory). Some women insist on sneaking in the back door and hiding in a room away from other patients. Others refuse to sit in the waiting room with women they call "sluts" and "trash." Or if they do, they get angry when other patients in the waiting room talk or laugh, because it proves to them that women get abortions casually, for "convenience".

A few behave in a very hostile manner, such as calling clinic staff "murderers." Years ago, a clinic counselor in British Columbia told me that one of her patients went into the procedure room apparently fine with her decision to have an abortion. During the abortion, at a stage when it was too late to stop the procedure, the woman started screaming "You murderers!" and other invectives at everyone in the room.

I, too, have heard these stories, of local anti-choice leaders who head straight back to the picket line after getting their abortions, or procuring them for their privileged daughters. A co-worker even told me about a doctor who threatened--at the probable cost of his own career for violating confidentiality--to expose a local anti-abortion nut whose daughter "couldn't have a baby ruining her college career" if he ever caught that activist protesting outside his clinic again.

Amazing, isn't it?