Hillary Clinton 3

Women should be treated on a equal level with men. That, however, does not mean that a mature woman's sexual mistake is the same as a man's. The woman has a right to privacy, but she cannot just get an abortion just because of a mistake. I am distinguishing between women and girls here. I would draw the line at 18.

In cases of rape, it is a matter of citizenship. A citizen belongs publically to the State. In cases of incest, it is a family matter. The woman (mother) is the private property of the family. The father is the private property of the family also.

Of course, the woman has the right to tests and other measures that ensure her health.

Abortion before the formation of the baby as a human being is not murder of the baby. There has been either an unlawful intrusion of a woman's private body or a girl's body before the formation of her identity as a woman. Therefore, it is the same argument of self-defense that gun-owners use when someone has unlawfully entered his home.

Now, it is true that some societies say that a girl is a woman when her body has fully formed (maybe around the age of 13 or so). These cultural variations are merely that -- they are gradations. But in our Anglo-American culture, it is assumed that there be a willful retardation of the functions of the body while the mind has time to develop.

This is the conclusion that I draw from all the NPR radio talk shows and readings in newspapers and other arguments, including Hillary Clinton's own distinction between family and citizenship.