Up to Speed on Hate Crimes

Since the country is always expanding it's definition of civil rights, the federal government senses its responsibility to act on behalf of some group that needs a boost. Of course, gay rights are the new frontier of civil rights, and the natural corrolary under democratic leadership is to expand hate crimes to include "offenses involving actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability." Injuring someone is almost always subject to penalty under law, but in this legislation you can punish somebody also for what he/she was thinking while she committed the crime. Section 6 of HR 1913 states that a hate crime is committed if it is done "because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person." This bill, HR 1913, passed the house a little over 2 months ago and is pending in the Senate.

It seems ironic to me that the very same party who, by and large, supports a women's right to choose for privacy reasons with respect to abortion will violate that very privacy when it comes to this type of legislation. What is more private than a person's thoughts, after all? Aren't the democrats supposed to be 1st amendment people?

No, the logic of the pro-choice movement has never really been logical. Neither is the logic for hate crimes legislation, but for different reasons. The taking of innocent human life without just cause is always wrong. Therefore, abortion is wrong. Therefore, killing a gay person unjustly is wrong. Killing anyone unjustly is wrong (qualifier words such as "unjustly" are needed to presume the rare instances when killing is just, such as combatants in a just war). We don't need extra legislation to punish more extremely those who hate a certain type of person. We do need legislation that makes it illegal to kill someone in the womb.

But if this bill passes in the Senate and is signed by the President, I'd be curious to see if we can begin to prosecute abortion doctors for killing babies. After all, I think all babies in the womb constitute a disabled person (unable to defend themselves, can't walk, talk, or feed themselves), and the fetus is unwanted (and therefore hated). That's right, almost all abortion is a hate crime. This is the real frontier in civil rights- the right to exist.

Somehow I don't think the illogical Senators on the Hill will agree with me.