Outlawing Abortion

As everyone knows, South Dakota has outlawed abortion. Abortion is probably a bad thing for society - it encourages - or rather, removes the principal deterrent to pre-marital sex which, outside of the brief fun the participants are having while engaging in it, provides no benefit to society while contributing many lasting problems - delayed or premature marriage, diseases (some deadly, many costly, many leading to infertility), and ill-advised pregnancies. Abortion of course directly mitigates the last of these, but a look at birth and abortion statistics indicates that the vast majority of abortions are of pregnancies that wouldn't have occurred if the option were not available.

Still, I'm afraid that pro-lifers are fooling themselves here if they think this is a good development. Sure, nowadays even poor South Dakotans can get themselves to another state to get an abortion, so I don't think metal-hanger scenarios are too likely just yet. But a pregnant woman who really does not want to have that baby is going to get an abortion - somehow or other. How is the state going to stop her? They can threaten to revoke an abortionist's license, but then there will be an abortion black market. Then you have to start throwing people in jail.

If you, as a citizen, feel something should be made illegal, understand what you're saying: you're saying that people who do the things you want to make illegal can be killed for doing it. That's what's ultimately involved, because when we make an activity illegal - whether it's smoking pot, viewing child pornography, talking on cell phones while driving, or performing abortions - we're sending men with guns to stop it, and if the perpetrators resist, the guys with the guns may kill them.

You can't just declare something illegal and expect it to stop - it must be enforced, and that means using force. As a society, we just love to make things illegal and then rely on the police and prosecutors to use sound judgement in only going after the really bad guys. Not always a good idea. I sympathize with the desire to end abortion, but it's not going to work and is an unnecessary distraction from other more pressing problems.