Donald Trump put his Republican competitors in a tough place on Wednesday by saying out loud the logical outcome of making abortion illegal: making women criminals to be punished. Usually the politicians pushing abortion bans sidestep that question to avoid alienating voters. But because Trump gaffed by admitting that “there has to be some form of punishment,” now Ted Cruz and John Kasich have to talk about it. They’re more careful than Trump, of course—which is to say they are totally dodging the issue. “Of course women shouldn’t be punished,” Kasich said. Except he didn’t have any real explanation of how his plan to ban abortion without punishing women would work.
“Well, look, I think it’s rape, incest, life of the mother, and you build some restrictions around it,” Kasich said. “But I think you have to be very careful in the way you do it. We’re a long way from there.”
I’m still not hearing what you do in cases where women go ahead and get abortions anyway.
“Once again Donald Trump has demonstrated that he hasn’t seriously thought through the issues, and he’ll say anything just to get attention,” Cruz said. “On the important issue of the sanctity of life, what’s far too often neglected is that being pro-life is not simply about the unborn child; it’s also about the mother — and creating a culture that respects her and embraces life. Of course we shouldn’t be talking about punishing women; we should affirm their dignity and the incredible gift they have to bring life into the world.”
You’re going to affirm women’s dignity while denying them control over their own bodies? How’s that work, exactly? And how does a dignity-affirming, non-punishing ban work? Cruz’s campaign chair actually answered that one: it’s about “punishing those who perform the abortions—not the women who get them.” So you’re punishing women by denying them safe care, forcing them to go to untrained, unsafe, often predatory abortion providers.
It’s no mystery what happens when you ban abortion. The United States has been there, as have many other countries. Women still get abortions. They just get unsafe abortions. They pay to face pain and infection and loss of fertility and loss of life, for what can and should be a safe, medically uncomplicated procedure. They’re punished in those ways even before the law can discover and punish them. Republicans very much want these things hidden, but these are the realities of banning abortion. Even if you won’t admit that punishing women is on the agenda.