Do Pro-Lifers have the courage of their convictions?

There has been some buzz recently surrounding this YouTube video showing Pro-Lifers hemming and hawing over the question of what punishment (if any) women having abortions should receive if abortion were outlawed. Admittedly this does not portray the right to life crowd in a positive light, however I contend that this is a product of our culture as a whole which has been educated to not think; rather than a reflection on just those on the side of life (see my TJEd Post for more on that). Also it is relatively easy to simply cut out anyone who might have given coherent answer when you are trying to put out a propaganda piece.

So what is the answer? Of course there should be punishment under the law, but the kind of punishment and if any is actually given to the woman who had the abortion depends on what common law refers to as extenuating circumstances. Was the woman under duress or otherwise pressured from a the father or someone else? Did she know that what she was doing was murder? Was she emotionally stable in her current state?

Steve at Stand to Reason aptly puts it this way:

Five minutes into the video, a pro-lifer gives the right answer: it depends. As with any other homicide, the intent and premeditation of those participating in the abortion has to be taken into account...

...It's the same with women (or doctors) who would be prosecuted for illegal abortion. The doctor might be prosecuted under a murder charge and the woman might be prosecuted under a manslaughter charge. It might be murder or manslaughter for both parties. The point is, you cannot know what the charge should be without knowing about the intentions and premeditation of the actors. Whether the woman or doctor knows the unborn is a human being may also be relevant to the legal calculation.

This does not imply that women are infants or that they are simply helpless victims as the left might have you believe. That's why we have Judges who can take circumstances into account when it comes to sentencing and don't simply look on some judicial spread sheet to cross reference your crime with the prison time listed for it.

Pro-lifers need to be able to answer these types of questions and they should be able to do so even before they have determined that abortion should be illegal, because the consequences of their actions needs to be taken into account when forming their opinions.

Now I'd like to see a similar video that asks the Pro-Death crowd what endows a baby with a right to life at the moment birth, when it had no rights whatsoever just seconds earlier. I want to know exactly what caused this fundamental change in it's nature...