How would I answer the question, “What punishment should a woman receive who obtained an illegal abortion?” I would say, “It depends.” I don’t think we can simply say the woman has suffered enough from the abortion itself and doesn’t need to be punished. We would never say a mother who drowned her children in the bathtub had suffered enough from watching them die and so didn’t need to be punished. If she knew it was wrong and chose to do it anyway, then a punishment would be deserved.
