Posted 6/07/2005 05:01:00 PM by Douglas

Justice, other than being just (obviously) should be proportional. Let's say you assist your girlfriend in killing her twin fetuses. More specifically, you assist your 17 year old girlfriend kill her twin fetuses and you're not a doctor at an abortion clinic. Now suppose that you get convicted for capital murder and sentenced to life in prison, while she gets a walk. That's exactly what happened in Lufkin:

Basoria told authorities that, after about four months of pregnancy, she regretted not getting an abortion and started jogging, skipping prenatal vitamins and hitting her own belly to induce a miscarriage. When her efforts failed, she said she asked her boyfriend to help.

Gerardo Flores, 19, who was prosecuted under the state's new fetal protection law, received an automatic life sentence.

Erica Basoria acknowledged asking Flores to help end her pregnancy, but the 17-year-old can't be prosecuted because of her legal right to abortion.

The defense contended that Basoria punched herself while Flores was stepping on her, making it impossible to tell who killed the twins.

There's absolutely no part of this story that's not tragically hideous, but how could anyone above an 8th grade education find any logic in convicting a man for punching a pregnant woman's belly, while at the same time preserving the right of the woman to terminate the pregnancy? I know the "fetus protection" law was intended to convict assailants in the event of a violent attack, and this is a bit more complicated since she asked him to walk on her stomach, but still. Proportionality, people.