Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

Tennessee lawmakers created a stir when they passed a law stating that a woman can be “prosecuted for assault for the illegal use of a narcotic drug while pregnant” if her infant is harmed or addicted to the drug. She can also be charged with homicide if the baby dies. The first woman to be charged under this law went to jail in July of last year. This type of law protecting the lives of unborn children has not extended beyond the Volunteer State, however, as nearly one year later no charges were filed against a mother in a similar case in Georgia. Even the Tennessee law does not delve deeply enough into the problem of abortion in this country, though. As long as the practice of abortion can be protected in the United States as “reproductive rights,” the gruesome practice of ending the lives of innocent children in the womb will never end. Attempting to separate cases of whether abortion is a crime by method or intent is a losing proposition. It either is or it isn't, and the fact remains that abortion represents the taking of a life. There is no arguing that fact, in or out of a court of law.