On Sat, 5 Jul 2003 05:55:13 -0500,
Clarissa <cfowler@revealed.net> wrote:

"junegill" <junegill@btinternet.com> wrote:

[post was ignored by Clarissa]

and now, the reply to the SIGNATURE

With every ABORTION there should be
STERILIZATION.

That would save a lot of trouble.
Clarissa

Sterilization after an abortion simply won't
happen without the woman's express permission
and approval.

Abortion is not a crime, so you can't call
sterilization a "punishment".

Even if abortion was a crime, sterilization
could not be the punishment. This is thanks
to one of the U.S. Supreme Court cases in
which sterilization is declared to be a
"cruel punishment" and thus a violation of
the Eighth Amendment's guarantee of protection.

==============================================
SKINNER v. STATE OF OKL. EX REL. WILLIAMSON,
316 U.S. 535 (1942)
http://laws.findlaw.com/us/316/535.html

Second paragraph:
http://laws.findlaw.com/us/316/535.html#541
==============================================
"The statute involved is Oklahoma's Habitual
Criminal Sterilization Act. Okl.St.Ann. Tit.
57, 171, et seq.; L.1935, p. 94 et seq. That
Act defines an 'habitual criminal' as a
person who, having been convicted two or
more times for crimes 'amounting to felonies
involving moral turpitude' either in an
Oklahoma court or in a court of any other
State, is thereafter convicted of such a
felony in Oklahoma and is sentenced to a
term of imprisonment in an Oklahoma penal
institution. 173. Machinery is provided for
the institution by the Attorney General of
a proceeding against such a person in the
Oklahoma courts for a judgment that such
person shall be rendered sexually sterile."
...
...
"We are dealing here with legislation which
involves one of the basic civil rights of man.
Marriage and procreation are fundamental to
the very existence and survival of the race.
The power to sterilize, if exercised, may have
subtle, farreaching and devastating effects.
In evil or reckless hands it can cause races
or types which are inimical to the dominant
group to wither and disappear. There is no
redemption for the individual whom the law
touches. Any experiment which the State
conducts is to his irreparable injury. He is
forever deprived of a basic liberty."
==============================================

Of course, this argument is kind of /irrelevant/,
since the Constitution would need to be /severely/
/rewritten/ with an eye to /removing civil rights/
in order to *ban abortion in the first place*.

In addition, the state would be granted power
over an individual's reproduction, thereby
clearing the way to sterilization of criminals.