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State Vs Watson

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It is not clear what the goals of these prosecutions were. One possible goal was to protect the unborn life. Some scholars have claimed that State v. Watson shows that the purpose of the Kansas statutes was to protect the “unborn life.” But, Watson does not seem to have any language that suggests such a purpose beside possibly the language of the statute itself. Furthermore, the Watson court interchangeable uses the word child and fetus throughout its opinion. Furthermore, Section 39 does not even mention the fetus or the unborn child. As previously mentioned, the prosecutions also do not seem to suggest such a purpose as they seem to only occur because the woman either died during the procedure or was forced into the procedure. Therefore, while this goal is possible, the evidence does not seem to support it. …show more content…

Professor James Mohr argues that the purpose of statutes like Kansas was to protect women. Abortions during this period were extremely dangerous. This was especially true with intrusive abortions like the one used in the Wilcox case. The large number of prosecutions brought because of the woman’s death seems to suggest that one of the goals was to protect women from the very deadly procedure. Furthermore, during this time, feminists believed that abortion was a crime done by men against woman and were generally opposed to the practice. An 1867 Kansas op-ed in favor of woman’s suffrage, said that when it came to the offense of abortion, “the victims are also women.” Which is supported by the fact that women were often pressured or coerced into abortions by their husbands or

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