I read an interesting op/ed piece in my local paper today (which I'm having trouble finding online
) about the move to make it a punishable offense for mothers to smoke while pregnant. This is directly relevent to Kev's thread about the helmet laws.
This creates a problem in the abortion debate -- it's hypocritical to support a mother's right to smoke while pregnant and at the same time believe that a fetus is a human being with the right to life. It's also hypocritical to try to enforce a law that prohibits mothers from smoking while saying it should be legal to abort a fetus halfway through its term. Will this issue turn into another battle for the abortion debaters?