Some of us have wrestled with the moral dilemma of abortion as a philosophical exercise. Some of us have confronted it directly after the jolt of two pink lines on a pregnancy test. Most Americans, including this editorial board, reject hard-line stances because we recognize the question of abortion is too complicated for absolute prohibition or total permission.
Our state lawmakers would have been wiser to recognize the deep moral complexity that abortion presents and the reality that there are times when women must have access to abortion. But instead the Legislature passed laws in 2021 that ban abortions after six weeks — even in cases of rape — and created a system that allows anyone to sue people they suspect of having facilitated an abortion.
Those laws may have arisen from a desire to protect more of the unborn. But they have had foreseeable consequences that are morally untenable. This includes scientific and anecdotal evidence that they have worsened medical care for women experiencing miscarriages.
