Another Modest Proposal

Guns for Fetuses

It is time to declare a stalemate in the culture wars. The trench warfare of the past 3 decades has produced only divisiveness and animosity on both sides of the cultural divide. Liberals refuse to admit that abortion is no less destruction of life than capital punishment, while bible-thumped conservatives won’t believe that adults are also human beings and as deserving of the right to life as fetuses are.

Here are two simple equations:

abortion = capital punishment

capital punishment = abortion

Conservatives want your fetuses while liberals want your convicts and your guns. The answer to this impasse could be as simple as a tit-for-tat trade of abortion rights for gun rights.

Before implementing this trade program the federal government must implement a program that provides the following across the country. These are non-negotiable.

1. Sex education that does not rely on teaching abstinence
2. Free birth control for anyone who wants it
3. Free health care for poor pregnant women and their children until adulthood
4. Guaranteed support for single women who bring unwanted fetuses to term
5. Churches are to be taxed to pay for the program.

	Outlaw	In exchange for
1.	Partial birth abortion	Private gun sales outlawed, all gun sellers must be federally registered and all gun sales must go through background checks. Background checks should take 6 months or more.
2.	Abortions for the under 16 set without parental notification, with an exception for anyone who has not had access to the sex ed program.	All assault rifles and automatic weapons permanently & irrevocably outlawed. Possession, manufacture, or importation is a felony with mandatory jail time for the first offense.
3.	Third trimester abortions	All existing handguns must be registered in a federal database. Possession of an unregistered handgun carries mandatory sentencing double the current guidelines for possession of marijuana. Capital punishment changed to Life Without Parole.
4.	Second trimester abortions	Amend the 2nd amendment to allow only single shot hunting rifles and shotguns with exceptions for handguns for active military and law enforcement personnel. Halt all personal handgun sales; ownership of existing registered handguns grandfathered in.
5.	First trimester abortions	All privately held handguns bought by the government and destroyed. NRA outlawed.
6.	Abortions for rape victims	Government must pay a stipend to the victim, pay for unlimited lifetime counseling, pay all costs to bring the fetus to term and pay to support the child through adulthood whether or not it is put up for adoption.
7.	Abortions when mother’s life is endangered	Never.