Comment

New Oklahoma Abortion Bill Challenged

127
martinsmithy10/08/2009 4:46:38 pm PDT

I personally think any woman or couple having an abortion for gender selection reasons should be shunned and ostracized. If such a practice could be specified with certainty, I would have no problem with making it illegal.

However, as a practical matter this law, or any law for that matter, that does not rely on some currently unknown form of mind-reading can accomplish such an outcome. The only way the relevant provision of the Oklahoma law would ever come to be used is if the woman told the abortion provider in no uncertain terms that the reason for the abortion was gender selection. And any abortion provider worth his or her salt woudl undoubtedly steer the discussion away from gender selection to the point where a prosecution would be infeasible.

The way to stop gender selection abortions is through moral approbation, not law.