According to Polls, Fred Thompson Foundering

Wash Post ^ | 11/13/07 | Chris Cillizza

[supercat]

***How did you get to that screen?

IEM Home Page ->

2008 Presidential Nomination Markets ->

DConv08 and RConv08 Data ->

IEM Daily Price History - RConv08

I then had to copy/paste to isolate Fred Thompson's figures.

[LexBaird]

Possibly. It might make an amendment easier if there was an established model. However, if an interpretation is established or legal definition passed by Congress that the unborn are persons in the eyes of the law, then no amendment would be necessary. The 5th and 14th amendments would already suffice.

Then, what constituted justifiable homicide of unborn would be left to the States to define, as any other justifiable homicide is. “I want an abortion because I forgot to use a condom or take my Pill” would probably not pass muster for equal protection, however.

The abortion lobby knows this, of course. That’s why you see them freaking out when a Scott Peterson is up for murder: they don’t want the personhood of fetuses established in a court.

[Kevmo]

Thanks. I thought it was an Intrade screen. That explains it.

[supercat]

Then, what constituted justifiable homicide of unborn would be left to the States to define, as any other justifiable homicide is. “I want an abortion because I forgot to use a condom or take my Pill” would probably not pass muster for equal protection, however.

No, but a state that wanted to do so could make the justifiable-homicide rules large enough to drive a truck through. After all, how many pregnancies don't expose a woman to some level of risk? While abortion certainly has risks of its own, trying to put explicit measurements of risk into legislation or--even worse--into a Constitutional amendment seems to me a recipe for trouble.

Besides, I think that it's best to focus first on getting the matter returned to states, especially since one may have some allies in that task who would not support having the federal government force states to take any particular action. Pushing for the total abortion ban first would give up those allies.