In Germany, for example, the nation's Constitutional Court interpreted the Basic Law, the equivalent of the Constitution, as protecting a right to life for a fetus or unborn child. Yet in 1993, the court held that recognizing fetal rights did not require criminalizing abortion early in pregnancy. Indeed, the German court ruled that the law had to balance women's and fetal rights — and that honoring fetal rights should primarily involve addressing the reasons that led some to terminate their pregnancies, such as a lack of adequate housing or health care.
In the United States, by contrast, anti-abortion groups have adopted a punitive approach in part because they have aligned with and relied on the Republican Party since the 1980s...
When the time is right, these groups will argue that originalism requires state and federal courts to hold that personhood under the Constitution begins the moment an egg is fertilized. And if that opportunity comes, the key question remaining for many personhood proponents will be clear: Who will be punished for harming those persons, and how much?…
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