General Discussion
Showing Original Post only (View all)Judge to Conservatives who tried closing abortion clinics: [View all]
What if we did the same thing for gun stores?
Fortunately, Judge Thompson (like his colleague in Mississippi) saw through the gimmick and his 172-page opinion ruling against the law was blistering.
The evidence compellingly demonstrates that the requirement would have the striking result of closing three of Alabamas five abortion clinics, clinics which perform only early abortions, long before viability, Thompson writes.
Taking it further, Thompson presents a thought experiment which may be my new favorite way of countering anti-abortion rhetoric from this day forward. It goes like this:
What if, instead of abortion, the issue were gun sales. Lets say in an effort to bypass the Constitution and curb gun ownership, the state or federal government passed a law that effectively shut down every gun store in the state but two.
The defenders of this law would be called upon to do a heck of a lot of explaining and rightly so in the face of an effect so severe, Thompson points out. Similarly, in this case, so long as the Supreme Court continues to recognize a constitutional right to choose to terminate a pregnancy, any regulation that would, in effect, restrict the exercise of that right to only Huntsville and Tuscaloosa should be subject to the same skepticism.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/08/05/judge-to-conservatives-who-want-to-close-abortion-clinics-what-if-we-did-the-same-thing-for-gun-stores/
