If Sarah Palin's now well-known views prevail and abortion is made illegal, what should the penalty be for a woman who has an abortion and a doctor who provides one?
Should they be fined - like we do with speeders on our highways - or should they be strapped into an electric chair?
Misdemeanor or felony?
It's a question the GOP vice presidential candidate needs to answer - with the specifics that have so far escaped her American Idol-ish debut. She is on record as saying that the government should force her daughter to have a baby in the event she were raped.
According to the Anchorage Daily News, during the final 2006 Alaska gubernatorial debate, "The candidates were pressed on their stances on abortion and were even asked what they would do if their own daughters were raped and became pregnant. Palin said she would support abortion only if the mother's life was in danger. When it came to her daughter, she said, 'I would choose life.'"
It's clear Palin sees abortion as a defining issue, and GOP presidential candidate John McCain chose her in large part to appeal to a formerly slumbering base.
But how do Palin's politics translate into criminal justice policy should she carry the day on the matter though influencing the selection of Supreme Court justices or by other means.
Americans deserve to know: Would the Alaska governor want to see her own daughter jailed or executed for having an abortion after being raped (if that ever happened)?
Pro-lifers may say, "let the penalty fit the crime," but on abortion they generally won't say what the penalty should be.
All pro-life candidates believe abortion is wrong. Many believe abortion is "murder."
And several of these candidates also believe in the death penalty for first-degree murder.
That considered, it would be logical for them to call for the executions of women who have abortions or their doctors, wouldn't it? Palin is a darling with the anti-abortion movement for having a baby with Down syndrome. Would she pardon her own daughter in the aforementioned rape-abortion scenario, or let her get the needle to further galvanize the base?
This is a fair question.
If a candidate wilts in the face of it, then he or she simply doesn't have the stuff to be a bona fide abortion opponent.
If a candidate says he wants to cut taxes, we ask what programs will be slashed.
And if a candidate says she wants to lock up more drug dealers with mandatory minimums, we ask "For how long?"
But when candidates say abortion should be criminalized, they are never pressed on what that really means for violators in a world where abortion would be illegal.
Their answers are vital to a debate that, without honest responses, is intellectually incomplete.
People who say they are opposed to abortion might get a little skittish when politicians start talking about prison time and even raising the specter of the death penalty for the women and their providers.
This is a question to test stomachs and resolve.
How far is Governor Palin willing to take her convictions on abortion?
