766 - Peace & Life: Prosecuting women? / RIP - September 4, 2026
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The Dangers of Prosecutionism
There have been some anti-abortion leaders of late who’ve proposed “equal protection” laws on the idea that women should be prosecuted for murder if they seek an abortion. This is playing right into pro-abortion hands:
Abortion advocates haven’t yet succeeded in their goal of shutting down pregnancy help centers. But if abortion-minded women can’t be honest with those centers for fear of prosecution, those centers would lose their ability to persuade the abortion-minded.
That’s only if such laws passed, and they won’t – the pro-life movement as a whole is too strongly against them. But to propose this in any state legislature is giving abortion advocates a propaganda gift on a silver platter.
The pro-life movement is practically the lobby and advocacy group for women who’ve been traumatized by their abortions. That group is a major constituency of the pro-life movement, and a major source of its strength – just as veterans for peace helps the peace movement. Prosecuting and therefore further traumatizing our own people is an act of sabotage for our goals.
For more detailed discussion, see our blog post: Who the Law Targets. The National Right to Life Committee covers this with why they (and we) use the term “prosecutionist.” See also the recent article from Eric Scheidler, linked in the quote of the week below, which makes similar points and responds specifically to this recent development.
Rest in Peace, Wendell Berry
Our endorser Wendell Berry died on August 31, 2026 at the age of 92. He was a prolific author of books, known especially for his environmental activism and small-farm advocacy. On the death penalty, he said in a 2009 statement: “As I am made deeply uncomfortable by the taking of a human life before birth, I am also made deeply uncomfortable by the taking of a human life after birth.”
Rest in Peace, Sixto Garcia
One of our earliest endorsers, professor, writer and theologian Sixto Garcia died on August 22 at age 83. For his
obituary, our own Carol Crossed noted:
Panel Discussion in Rochester NY
Wednesday, October 28, 2026, 2:30 to 3:45 PM
Nazareth University, 4246 East Avenue, Rochester NY – GAC 233
Our member group Feminists Choosing Life of New York is promoting a panel discussion, “Understanding the Consistent Life Ethic,” with Dr. Machessa Samz and guests. Register here.
Latest on the Blog
Fr. Jim Hewes tells the story of Reaching the Chaplain that Blessed the Bomb. That chaplain, George Zabelka, ended up being an effective and energetic advocate against nuclear weapons.
Quote of the Week
Eric J. Scheidler
Note: Scheidler is commenting on the extremely harmful “equal protection” bills that have no chance of passing in state legislatures but generate harmful publicity.
Abortion will not end when we find the right punishment for the women who seek it. It will end when we dismantle the social conditions that push and pull women towards abortion—poverty, lack of housing, job insecurity, male abandonment, intimate partner violence, an overall lack of support for marriage and family, and social disdain for the sacrifices of parenthood.
That also includes the supply side of abortion, where the threat of prosecution actually works: providers in abortion-ban states have closed up shop. That’s where we must concentrate our law enforcement efforts—not on women desperate enough to seek abortion.
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