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Every hospital in America routinely tests newborns for illicit drugs. If the baby tests positive, the hospital makes a referral to children’s services. The state then takes custody of the baby and the woman’s older children. If no suitable relative is available to take them, all the children go into foster care until the woman proves that she is clean and able to care for her children.

The woman who is pregnant and using illicit drugs knows all this. She knows that if she gives birth in a hospital, she will lose her baby as well as her older children. So she aborts the baby. The state is none the wiser, and her older children remain at risk for neglect and abuse. This happens all the time. The woman who procures an abortion may well be a threat to her older dependent children, not to mention future children she may conceive.

The use of abortion to hide the abuse and neglect of older children will continue unabated in states where abortion remains legal, but in pro-life states, we have a chance to intervene. At the very least, every illegal abortion must be referred to children’s services, so that the proper authorities may check on the welfare of other dependent children.

The mother and her child(ren) are not the only victims of abortion. The woman who aborts doesn’t just kill her own child. She kills someone else’s child. Someone else’s grandchild, niece or nephew, brother or sister. The state has a compelling interest in prosecuting all the perpetrators, in pursuit of justice for all the victims, while recognizing the mother’s peculiar role as both victim and perpetrator. Read more…