North Carolina bill to prosecute women for abortion draws criticism from within the anti-abortion movement

A proposed North Carolina constitutional amendment that would open women who obtain abortions to murder prosecution has drawn attention not from the left or center, but from within conservative and anti-abortion circles. The bill represents the position of a faction that identifies as "abortion abolitionists" rather than "pro-life" — a distinction the abolitionists themselves draw to signal their rejection of partial bans or incremental restrictions.

The Washington Examiner, a right-leaning outlet, published an opinion piece arguing that the abolitionist position, while internally logical on its face, breaks down under scrutiny. The piece noted that abolitionists explicitly state they are not "pro-life," and that mainstream pro-life advocates do not claim them. The core abolitionist argument — that if abortion is murder, then women who obtain abortions must be liable for murder — is described in the piece as only the beginning of a more troubling framework.

The Examiner's piece raised two specific objections to the abolitionist position. The first concerns women who are trafficked or in abusive relationships: abolitionist doctrine holds that "duress is no defense for abortion," meaning a woman coerced into an abortion by a trafficker or abusive partner could still face prosecution. The piece characterized this position as "repugnant" and argued that moral responsibility in cases of coercion must fall on the tormentor, not the coerced.