Unfortunately, maternal morality trumps maternal mortality in the minds(?) of too many so-called pro-lifers, north and south of the equator. If the truth were told, these folks see women who suffer complications from a "backalley" abortion - or any abortion, for that matter - as only getting what they deserve. Self-righteousness - perhaps a greater scourge across the back of mankind than even Dickens' horrifying Ignorance and Want - creates hard hearts and closed minds every time.

I hope it's true that Latin American countries are beginning to change their tune on this issue. I have a friend from Peru and one of her cousins had a baby at 15 that she didn't want or know how to care for because of these ridiculous laws.

One of the many things that annoy me about anti-choice people is that they keep asking for punishment of people who perform abortions but never for women who seek them out. They don't want the focus to be on the woman. It's easier to get people to oppose abortion if they put the focus on the fetus, especially if they blur the line between a 12 week fetus and a fully developed baby.

They pretend that women are helpless victims, forced by unscrupulous for-profit abortion centers (as if there is that much profit in abortions) and irresponsible men to have abortions. Instead of recognizing women as responsible human beings making a choice about their body, they portray us as helpless victims who must be protected by the government from making a "mistake" that will harm us.

Don't get me wrong - I don't want women to be punished for having abortions in Uruguay. I want abortions to be legal everywhere. But it's pretty clear that having women in jail for having an abortion is forcing the people of Uruguay to deal with issues about women's rights and morality. If abortion is murder, then the person seeking an abortion should be jailed. If the person seeking the abortion is not guilty of soliciting murder, then abortion is clearly not murder.