George Tiller’s clinic will remain closed permanently. The closest abortion services to Wichita are now three hours away: not late-term abortion services, *any* abortion services.
What are we going to do about it?
Dr. Tiller’s clinic will remain closed permanently. Closest abortion capacity to Wichita — not late-term abortion, any abortion —is now a three-hour drive away. Legal abortion is increasingly unavailable to women in rural areas and in the South, Midwest, and Mountain West.
And what are you going to do about it? Megan McArdle thinks that passing additional protective legislation would just further enrage abortion opponents. On the other hand, letting them taste blood will just encourage more of them to murder more doctors. Rewarding bad behavior is generally a bad plan. In this case, inaction = reward.
Update A reader answers the “What are you going to do?” challenge:
Require every hospital accepting federal funds to provide abortion services, either directly or under agreements with clinics in the same cities. (Just as transit systems must provide handicapped-accessible services directly or through contract with another operator.)
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman